Life Insurance with a heart condition
There are more than 8 million people in the UK living with a heart or circulatory disease, according to the British Heart Foundation. We all want to protect our loved ones financially, but given the prevalence of conditions like heart disease, what are the implications for our life insurance decisions? Here, we’ll explore how life insurance with a heart condition works.
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When you’re ready to get a policy a life insurance provider will ask some questions about you and the cover you want. You’ll need to disclose information about your health history. Life insurance providers calculate how much you need to pay (your premium). The price takes account of your health history, including heart conditions. Relevant heart conditions can include:
- Heart disease, including coronary artery disease, heart attacks and angina
- Heart failure
- Heart valve disorders
- Heart rhythm disorders for example irregular heartbeat
- Structural heart disorders for example congenital heart defects
- Heart bypass surgery, angioplasty
Yes, although it does depend on the type and severity of heart condition you have. In some cases you may need to pay higher premiums.
If you’ve experienced a heart attack, or have undergone a heart transplant, for example, you will not be able to get life insurance with L&G.
In other instances, we may request a report from your Doctor in order to make a decision. For example, if you've experienced angina or have coronary artery disease.
Other providers may take a different approach to some health conditions. It could be worth shopping around or talking to a financial adviser.
Ultimately, the information you provide in your application will have an impact on the amount you'll pay for your cover or the ability to get life insurance with a heart condition.
An insurer will consider your family medical history, including any heart conditions, and may seek your consent to access your medical records before deciding whether to offer you a policy.
If a customer doesn’t answer application questions truthfully and accurately, an insurer could cancel the policy without refunding premiums It’s important to include accurate information about any heart conditions when you apply for life insurance – failure to do so could prevent your beneficiaries from getting a life insurance payout. Fraudulent information can even result in legal action.
A Life Insurance policy pays out if you die while the policy is in place. So if you die as a result of a heart condition and a valid claim is made the policy would pay out.
You also have the option of adding Critical Illness Cover for an extra cost when you take out life insurance. This type of cover could pay out if you undergo a medical operation or are diagnosed with a specfied illness that we cover, which includes the following heart conditions:
- Aorta graft surgery - requiring surgical replacement
- Cardiac arrest – with the insertion of a defibrillator
- Cardiomyopathy – of specified severity
- Coronary artery bypass grafts – with surgery to divide the breastbone or thoracotomy
- Heart attack – of specified severity
- Complete heart transplant – from another donor
- Open heart surgery – with median sternotomy
- Primary pulmonary hypertension – of specified severity.
The cost of life insurance with a heart condition
Legal & General Life Insurance is available from just £5 a month but we’ll need to ask you some questions to give you an exact price.
If you’re applying for life insurance with a heart condition, it’s likely you would pay higher premiums than a customer in normal health (if you’re eligible for cover). These are some things that could affect your premium:
- Your age
- Your smoker status
- Your alcohol consumption
- Your occupation
- Any hazardous hobbies.
Everyone’s circumstances are different, but if you have a heart condition, below are some of the different types of life insurance you could research.
- Life Insurance - if you were to die while covered by the policy, a life insurance payout could support your loved ones with ongoing living costs, including the mortgage or rent, household bills and childcare.
- Decreasing Life Insurance - is designed to help protect a repayment mortgage and is a common consideration when buying a home. With this type of insurance, the amount of cover reduces roughly in line with the way a repayment mortgage decreases.
- Critical Illness Cover - If you take out Life Insurance or Decreasing Life Insurance, you could pay to add Critical Illness Cover. The amount of cover would be paid out if you are diagnosed with a condition, including certain heart conditions, which meets our definition during the length of your policy and you survive 14 days from diagnosis.
There is the option of Income Protection. So If you’re signed off from work due to illness or injury, our Income Protection Benefit can provide you with a monthly benefit to lessen the financial impact on your family. Income Protection from Legal & General is only available through our team of financial advisers. You can call them on 0800 294 0275 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. We may record and monitor calls.
Additional support for heart conditions
If you’re living with a heart condition, you’re not alone. Below are some additional resources you can find online.
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