No Medical Exam Life Insurance 2025

No Medical Exam Life Insurance 2025

Most of the time life insurance applications are arranged without any form of medical. 

Insurers like to ask people to have a medical when they apply for life insurance, in some circumstances, but it is not their go to approach. They cost money!

Insurers have spent decades and continue to spend a lot of time to make sure that the questions on their life insurance applications, gather as much information as possible, so things like medicals can be avoided. In an ideal world, they want to give people a simple application that allows them to start a life insurance policy, as soon as they’ve answered all of the questions.

But medicals can’t always be avoided. 

I’m quite geeky and there is actually an international insurer that now uses an app on your phone to scan your face, as a sort of mini medical, as part of your life insurance applications. It’s fascinating what the phone apps can pick you about your health, just from certain readings of your face.

That’s not the usual route for medical examinations in the UK for life insurance and I will take you through what it could mean for you.

What Happens in a Medical

I work in insurance and see the importance of having it all the time. Life insurance claims can happen to anyone. We’ve seen it with young, middle-aged and older people. People with health conditions and people who had zero disclosures when they took out their life insurance.

So you can probably guess that I have a lot of insurance myself! I have had a few medicals over the years when I have been arranging new life insurance policies and I’ll share what I experienced.

Firstly, you don’t pay for medicals with UK life insurers. The insurers pays for the medical and it does done by a medical professional at a time and place that suits you. There are times that an adviser might suggest that you arrange a medical yourself to speed up the life insurance application process, but be mindful that the cost of this might not be refunded to you. It’s very unlikely that the insurer would refund this to you.

Secondly, if you do arrange a medical yourself, do not rush into it. I can’t express this enough. You might go and do a medical and not cover everything that the insurer wants, which will just add to delays and more costs to you. The best route is usually to leave everything for the insurer to sort out, as it will be part and parcel of your life insurance application with them.

Potential medical requirements:

• Height check
• Weight check
• Waist measurement
• Cotinine check – cotton bud swab from mouth to prove you are a non-smoker
• Lung capacity check – you breathe into a machine and/or they measure your rib area while you take breaths in and out
• Blood test
• Urine test
• Blood pressure check

These are the main tests that are done for a life insurance medical in the UK. 

Some people really don’t want to have a medical, this is often due to a fear of needles or white coat syndrome. If this is the case there are sometimes ways that insurers can support you. As an example, if you have a fear of needles, the insurer might accept the results of a blood test that you have had at your GP (depending upon how long ago it was). 

If you apply for life insurance and are told that you need a medical, the best thing is to tell us as soon as possible, if this will be difficult for you. We can then do our best to adapt the life insurance application process for you.

Why You Might Need a Medical

There are quite a few reasons that insurers could ask you to have a medical. Here are some of the more common ones:

• Sum assured – depending upon your age and how much insurance you want, insurers will automatically ask for a medical
• Health conditions – this is most likely if you have a medical condition and haven’t had recent blood tests, that are used to monitor your health
• Travel abroad – extensive or high risk travel abroad in the past can lead some insurers to ask you to attend a medical

The majority of time, we see medicals asked for when the sum assured of the life insurance policy is high. If you are younger you can often apply for life insurance up to or a bit over £1m without a need for a medical. But, if you are older insurers can start to ask for medicals at much lower sum assureds e.g. £150k.

Pros and Cons

Reasons that medicals are good for life insurance applications:

• The insurer has an accurate record of your health
• You essentially get a free medical whether the life insurance goes ahead or not
• Medicals can potentially identify hidden health niggles that can be missed, meaning you can get treatment and support now, before it becomes something more serious

Reasons that medicals are a pain in the backside for life insurance applications:

• It takes time to arrange a medical
• There are times when the medical needs to be repeated – this isn’t common, but we’ve seen it happen
• Your medical might identify something in your health that alters your options for life insurance

This last one is always very tricky. Let’s take high blood pressure as an example. You could be walking around completely unaware that you have high blood pressure, no symptoms, etc, and arrange life insurance without any knowledge of it. Assuming that you have no knowledge about it, your life insurance application would be accepted as truthful and at normal rates. But, if you have gone for a higher sum assured and needed to have a medical, the high blood pressure would be found and it could alter your options for life insurance.

It’s very important that I say here, that you should not delay speaking with your GP or attending a medical, because you want to make sure that you  get your insurances in place first. The main reason is that your health comes first, always. The other reason is that it simply isn’t worth it. If there was a claim and a suspicion that you’d not sought medical advice when you should have done, it could mean that the insurer delays or doesn’t pay out the claim.

No Medical Exam Life Insurance

There are some insurers that never require a medical for life insurance with them. But, you need to be aware of their terms and conditions as they are more specialist.

With life insurance options that guarantee no medicals you will usually find that the following:

• There is a maximum sum assured that is allowed and this will be determined by your age
• The policies will exclude claims relating to pre-existing conditions, either for a set period of time, or forever
• The policy may have permanent exclusions for claims relating to self-harm, alcohol, drugs and more

Life insurance arranged this way is usually called ‘Guaranteed Acceptance Life Insurance’. It can come in many forms, the most commonly known is Over 50s cover, but there are some life insurances policies that can be arranged at a younger age.

It’s worth bearing in mind that Over 50s cover is slightly different and excludes claims relating to any medical condition within set periods of time, not just pre-existing conditions. It’s often useful to think of it as an accidental death policy until you are through the initial exclusion period, which tends to be anything from 6 months to 2 years, depending upon the insurer.

Most UK life insurers will not ask for a medical, so it is best to check your options with mainstream providers, before looking at more specialist routes.

My Thoughts

Not always the popular opinion, but I love medicals. Sometimes I think it would be a good idea if they were part of all protection insurance applications, but I know that would not be a popular choice.

The absolute key things for me are that medicals make sure that the insurer has a clear account of your health when they assess your application, they can’t suddenly say at the point of claim that you didn’t tell that your iron levels were low. It’s also that if there is anything going on with your body, yes it might delay your life insurance application, but at least you know about now and can do something about it.

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