Rheumatoid Arthritis & Life Insurance

We understand that having rheumatoid arthritis can be difficult to live with.

You may find that contacting us by phone or email, is better for you, depending upon any pain that you have in your hands, wrists, arms or shoulders. We will adapt to whatever you need us to do, to support you.

People can be effected by rheumatoid arthritis in many different ways and this can sometimes make getting life insurance slightly more difficult.

Things we need to know to get started:

• How long have you had rheumatoid arthritis?
• Whereabouts in your body do you have experience symptoms?
• What medication do you take?
• Do you have any specific treatments to help?
• Does it affect your ability to work?

When you apply for life insurance, rheumatoid arthritis should be detailed to the insurer. They often like to know things such as when did you last have symptoms, the medications that are used and how regularly you have flare-ups.

Your policy can be accepted with anything from ordinary rates through to special terms (increased premium), depending upon the medication that you take and any other medical conditions that you have.

Rheumatoid arthritis life insurance applications that detail mild symptoms, low strength medication and demonstrate that the condition is well controlled, can result in standard terms in certain circumstances.

Stronger medications such as anti TNFs (e.g. imflixmab), or anti-disease modifying drugs (e.g. methotrexate), will probably result in the policy being accepted at what is known as non-standard terms (a premium increase). The amount that the premiums change will be based upon your individual circumstances.

Critical illness cover pays out a cash lump sum of money, if you are diagnosed with a medical condition that is listed in the insurer’s claims set e.g. cancer, heart attack, stroke.

When you apply for critical illness cover, rheumatoid arthritis will be reviewed by the insurers in a similar manner as with Life Insurance. The insurance provider will be particularly interested in the medications that you take, the strength of your symptoms and if there are any other significant disclosures in your medical history.

If you currently take strong medication or have regular flare-ups, it is likely that you will be offered special terms on the policy. This will mostly likely involve either a premium increase or an exclusion of rheumatoid arthritis and related conditions, from your policy claims set.

Rheumatoid arthritis critical illness cover applications that detail strong symptoms condition, additional medical disclosures or a range of stronger medication could see your application being declined, with standard insurers.

If this is the case, there might be some options that can be looked at with more specialist insurers. Our advisers are here to help talk you through the best route to insurance, for you.

Income protection pays you a replacement of your monthly income, if you are unable to work due to ill health.

Income protection for people living with rheumatoid arthritis will most likely need to be placed with specialist insurer who may consider the cover, not all will.

Many income protection claims are related to musculoskeletal conditions, leading insurers to be somewhat cautious of providing cover to people that have existing illnesses, that are closely related to this category.

Insurance providers will place additional focus upon the medications that you use, regularity of flare-ups, any time you have had off work and your occupation. Most income protection policies will come with an exclusion on any claim related to your rheumatoid arthritis.

GET AN INCOME PROTECTION QUOTE

Accident, Sickness and Unemployment cover may be more suited to your needs if you find the income protection policy terms not to your liking. This cover will provide short-term income protection of 12 to 24 months and you do not need to provide details of your medical history at the point of application. This means that the cover can be more readily available and cheaper than Income Protection.

However you must be fully aware that any claim made on this policy will exclude any illness or injury that is caused by your rheumatoid arthritis. Whilst the cover is not medically underwritten at the time of application, any claim will be subject to medical underwriting.

GET AN ACCIDENT, SICKNESS AND UNEMPLOYMENT QUOTE

When you go on holiday the last thing that you want to do is worry about insurance. You are meant to be relaxing. One of the best ways to truly get a break is to know that you are covered, if something does go wrong while you are away. We do not provide advice on travel insurance, but if you go to our dedicated travel insurance page, you will find a specialist that you can talk to.