Getting a health insurance quote for your family
To give a quote, an insurer asks some questions about the people to be covered. Some insurers ask about each person's health. Others don't ask, and leave out claims linked to a condition someone already had.
What to have ready
- the name and date of birth of each person to be covered
- each person's health history, including conditions, treatment and symptoms
- details of any cover someone already has, through work or a policy of their own
Policies that ask about health
With some policies, the insurer asks questions about your health and asks you to declare any conditions you have at that time. The Financial Ombudsman Service says this is often called medical screening. The insurer then tells you whether those conditions are covered. If they are left out, you may be able to pay an additional premium to include them.
Policies that skip the health questions
Other policies skip the health questions. The Ombudsman says these have a blanket exclusion for all claims caused by, or related to, a pre-existing medical condition.
Answering the questions
The law puts a duty on the person buying. Under the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012, It is the duty of the consumer to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation to the insurer.
When a complaint reaches it and there was medical screening, the Ombudsman checks whether the customer gave the insurer all the relevant information. If they did not, it considers whether the information was deliberately misrepresented or a mistake.
How the price is worked out
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) says an insurer looks at two things. One is how likely it is in general that someone will need to claim. The other is whether the person applying is a bigger or smaller risk than the average policyholder, and the person's medical history is part of that.
Checking the firm
Before you buy, you can look the insurer or broker up on the Financial Conduct Authority's Firm Checker. It shows whether the firm is authorised, and whether it has permission to give the service you want.
After you buy
The FCA's rules give a consumer the right to cancel a new insurance contract without penalty and without giving any reason. The window is at least 14 days. An insurer can choose to give longer.
If something goes wrong, make a formal complaint to the insurer first. If it sends no final response within eight weeks, or you are unhappy with its response, you can take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Useful links
- Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012, section 2 (legislation.gov.uk)
- ICOBS 7.1: the right to cancel (FCA Handbook)
- FCA Firm Checker (Financial Conduct Authority)
- Pre-existing medical conditions (Financial Ombudsman Service)
- Medical insurance complaints (Financial Ombudsman Service)
- Health insurance (Association of British Insurers)