Crohn’s Disease & Life Insurance

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Crohn’s Disease & Life InsuranceWe know that Crohn’s disease is different for anyone that has it, for some people it can cause some minor discomfort, for others symptoms can be stronger and require surgery.

No matter how the Crohn’s disease affects you, we are here to find you an insurer that is considerate of your circumstances.

Things we need to know:

  • When were you diagnosed with Crohn’s disease?
  • What medication do you take?
  • Are you able to work?
  • Are you due any surgery?
  • Have you had surgery to remove part of the bowel?
  • When was your last flare up?

Life insurance for people with Crohn’s disease can be available at standard rates, where the condition is considered to be quite mild. If you have had no recent flare ups and are on mild medication, there should be options for you to have life insurance at normal terms.

For people who are experiencing stronger symptoms of Crohn’s disease, it is possible that life insurance may be offered at non-standard rates (a premium increase). This could be due to the strength of medications that you take, or if you have any abscesses or fistulas that are affecting your standard of living.

If you are due to have any surgery to treat the Crohn’s disease e.g. fistula removal, fitting of an ileostomy or colostomy bag, then it is likely that your application for life insurance will be postponed, until you have fully recovered from the surgery. In this case you can arrange life insurance with a specialist insurer.

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.

Critical illness cover for people with Crohn’s disease can be available at standard terms, where the condition has been dormant for some time and light medication is in use.

The insurer will want to know if the Crohn’s disease affects your standards of daily living, and a good indicator of this is if you are able to work.

Where stronger medications are in use and the Crohn’s disease is more active, you may find that you are offered critical illness cover at non-standard terms. Some insurers may place an exclusion for Crohn’s disease on the policy, if they have it as a claimable critical illness.

If you are waiting from surgery due to the Crohn’s disease, you will need to speak with a specialist insurer to arrange your critical illness policy. 

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

Income Protection for people with Crohn’s disease is likely to be offered at non-standard terms. The insurer will probably offer you income protection at a higher premium than someone who does not have Crohn’s disease, or they may offer an exclusion for claims relating to Crohn’s disease instead.

This is because the insurer sees the Crohn’s disease as a condition that can progress and place you at a higher risk of making a claim for inability to work. The insurer will want to know if you have had any time off work due to the Crohn’s disease, how often you experience symptoms and how it affects you on a daily basis.

If you are offered income protection but it comes with a price increase that doesn’t suit you, you could look at Accident, Sickness and Unemployment Cover. This type of policy offers you income replacement for between 12 and 24 months, if you cannot work due to ill health or involuntary redundancy.

Accident, sickness and unemployment policies are arranged without detailing your medical history, so your Crohn’s disease will not affect your eligibility for the policy. But the policy will exclude any claim that’s related to your Crohn’s disease.

Are you going on holiday? We work alongside a specialist travel insurance broker that can fully explain what you are covered for, when it comes to the Crohn’s disease. Please visit our dedicated travel insurance page here.

Hi, today I’d like to talk to you about Ms C. Charlie came to us, she was in her early 30s and she was a non-smoker, and when she spoke to as we identified that she really needed life insurance to provide some financial security to her family in the event that she were to pass away because she had a mortgage in place and they would potentially inherit that debt.

Now the reason that Charlie had come to speak to us is because she had been diagnosed with crohn’s disease as a teenager. Now this meant over time, she had a number of flare-ups, different changes of medication. And at one point she had had to have surgery to remove power of her bowel. In combination with the Crohn’s disease and different things that are going on as well, she had a really low BMI. It was a little over 16 and then we’re getting into the level of below 17, that’s often when insurers do like to know just a little bit more about what’s going on and someone’s overall health. Another thing that we had to factor in was the fact that with Charlie about six months before we did the application, she had needed to go to hospital for a really acute flare-up of the crohn’s and we just needed to make sure that we went to an insurer that was really understanding that that had happened.

What I’m really pleased to say is that we were able to get decreasing life insurance to cover Charlie’s capital repayment mortgage of 290,000 pounds over 32 years for a monthly premium of 29 pounds.

What is Crohn's Disease?

Crohn’s disease is a condition that is often misunderstood as someone simply having a bad case of diarrhoea with stomach pain. This is not the case. Crohn’s disease is a debilitating condition that can affect the sufferer for weeks or months at a time and can affect any part of the digestive system from the mouth through to the bowel.

The condition causes an inflammation of the lining of the digestive system and can be triggered by any combination of a genetic predisposition, immune system deficiency, previous infections or environmental factors.

Also: Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), regional enteritis, Crohn syndrome

Linked with: Ulcerative Colitisarthritis, uveitis, osteoporosis, bowel cancer, colon cancer

Some potential problems experienced by individuals who have Crohn’s disease include:

  • Abdominal pain
  • Anaemia
  • Anal fissures
  • Blood or mucous in stools
  • Diarrhoea
  • Dietary restrictions
  • Fatigue
  • Fistulas
  • Ileus (reduced bowel mobility)
  • Loss of appetite
  • Perforation of the gut
  • Restriction in sports
  • Social anxiety
  • Stricture of the gut
  • Ulcers
  • Unintentional weight loss
  • Wanting to remain close to the bathroom
  • Abscess removal
  • Adalimumab (Humira)
  • Asacol
  • Budesonide (Entocort, Pulmicort,Rhinocort)
  • Colectomy with ileo-rectal anastomosis
  • Colectomy with ileostomy
  • Colestyramine anhydrous
  • Depo-Medrone
  • Dexamethasone sodium phosphate (Dexsol)
  • Fistula removal
  • Hydrocortisone acetate (Colifoam)
  • Hydrocortisone sodium succinate (Solu-Cortef)
  • Ileocaecal resection
  • Infliximab
  • Laparoscopy
  • Limited right hemicolectomy
  • Mesalazine
  • Methylprednisolone (Medrone)
  • Methylprednisolone acetate (Depo-Medrone)
  • Methylprednisolone sodium succinate (Solu-Medrone)
  • Prednisolone (Deltacortril)
  • Prednisolone acetate (Deltastab)
  • Prednisolone sodium metasulphobenzoate (Predfoam)
  • Prednisolone sodium phosphate (Predsol)
  • Proctocolectomy and ileostomy
  • Questran
  • Remicade
  • Resection of the intestine
  • Stoma
  • Strictureplasty
  • Sulfasalazine (Salazopyrin)

Common Questions

No. It is unusual to be declined life insurance if you have Crohn’s disease. You may have been declined life insurance if you are due surgery soon, or have had surgery recently. Many banks are tied to one insurer and it could be that the one your bank is linked with, just isn’t good for people with Crohn’s disease. There are quite a few insurers that can offer people with Crohn’s disease Life Insurance on the standard market, and if for whatever reason that isn’t available, there are specialist insurers you can go to.

Probably not. If your surgery was recent, then you may find that some insurers decline your application for Life Insurance, until some more time has passed. But even if that is the case, there are specialist insurers that you can arrange Life Insurance with. With you having a colostomy bag fitted, the insurer may take that as an indication that your Crohn’s disease is on the more severe side of things, and could give you non-standard terms for Life Insurance (higher premium).

It depends. The insurer is going to want to know exactly how long it has been since your last flare up and the length of time that you were unable to work. Some insurers may offer you Income Protection with an exclusion for claims related to the Crohn’s disease, others may increase the policy premium instead. If there has been enough time since your last flare up, you may be able to get Income Protection at standard terms.

Client Reviews

Cura Financial Services has been rated 5 out of 5 based on 739 reviews.

Review by Jasbinder on 6th August 2018

Nick was absolutely brilliant from start to finish. Due to my medical background he looked at all options suitable for me. He was clear, concise and in no way pressurised me to make any decisions. - 5 

You can read more of our reviews here.

Crohn’s Disease & Life Insurance

Dr Kathryn Knowles Phd

Author
This page was written by Dr Kathryn Knowles Phd, an award-winning insurance adviser. To read more about Kathryn please see her bio here

Crohn’s Disease & Life Insurance

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Crohn’s Disease & Life Insurance

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