Life Insurance cancelled following medical records

Hi, I have just received a letter from my life insurance & critical illness cover provider that they are cancelling my life insurance because I failed to disclose in 2012 that the doctor recommended I cut down on my alcohol intake.

For context, I turned 40 in 2012, was the fittest I have ever been (gym/ cycling/ kickboxing/ running). I had the standard ‘just turned 40’ health check, and there was very little they found wrong. They found nothing wrong with my BMI, cholesterol, bloods etc and told I should eat more oily fish (I am a veggie so told them that was not going to be possible).

When they asked about my drinking, I said that there were weekends that I would exceed the 21 unit guidelines, but on the whole I don’t drink in the week, have long periods without drinking.

This has translated onto the medical record as ‘alcohol intake above recommended sensible limits’. Every check up since then has not referenced this.

I now need to arrange new cover, but no doubt will be penalised as I have had cover cancelled.

Has anyone had similar experience?

I would raise a complaint with the Insurance Company and then escalate to the Ombudsman.

Seems totally unreasonable.

Insurance companies regularly break the rules in a strictly regulated industry.

The maximum weekly recommended units went down to 14 a while back, maybe you’ve fallen foul of some algorithm because of that?

I think this is an example of where you need to be very careful with insurance policies (life/travel) that you fully disclose your medical history because any option they can they will exploit.

Might be worth a chat with the GP to see if they are willing to update your medical record…. if you have reduce your alcohol intake.

Then you can complain to the insurance, go through ombudsman.

Unfortunately as it stands, you do drink more than the recommend amount of alcohol.

Edit: I imagine you were paying relatively little for your policy, and have just hit a milestone birthday or about to?

Is 52 or 53 milestone birthday?

This is interesting, I had a similar thing around then, would have been 35. Nurse doing the check up said there was nothing to recommend, barely drinking, never smoked, cycling loads eating okay etc.

She then said let’s see what would happen if I put you down as a smoker. Came up with generic guff about quitting. Had a laugh about it and forgot about about.

Anyway, had a hernia op last year and my medical records state that I’m a smoker.  FFS. I said that it was incorrect, but not sure anything has been done about it…

May be need a chat with the GP..

Wait, what?

How long have you had this cover?

Turn 52 on Saturday, the reason they were looking at my policy is because me and my wife were advised a joint policy would be better for us.

I was paying £110 per month. They have sent me £6k worth of premiums paid back.

We both get death in service of 3 x annual salary, so mortgage would be covered if we died. Mortgage has 9 years left.

I’ll speak to the doctors about the records. I still have a beer at the weekend, but may just knock drinking on the head and reapply in 12 months.

Thanks for the replies, was interested in hearing views.

Hi, I have just received a letter from my life insurance & critical illness cover provider that they are cancelling my life insurance because I failed to disclose in 2012 that the doctor recommended I cut down on my alcohol intake.

To me this seems unreasonable. I would have no idea what was recorded on my well person at 50 medical check. I consider myself pretty squeaky clean on this sort of form filling.

Do you have access to what you said when you applied.

Does the evidence from the medical record contradict anything you said. For example did they ask “what is your alcohol intake?” or “have you ever been advised that your alcohol consumption is outside of limits”

One of my worries here is i see the cold hand ai

Chatgpt

“Compare this patients medical records to the form they filled in when they applied and report any discrepancies ”

How have the insurance co. become aware of the 2012 discussion with the GP about alcohol now?

How have the insurance co. become aware of the 2012 discussion with the GP about alcohol now?

The Insurance Co. probably requested the records from his GP in 2012…

How have they suddenly come to see these records?

My life insurance people have never asked to see mine since I signed up 25+ years ago.

And why the yearly check-ups? Is this a condition of your critical illness cover?

How long have you had this cover?

I’ve had the policy for years, upped the values in 2017

Do you have access to what you said when you applied.

I don’t. I have my medical records from the GP that were sent to the insurance co though, so can ensure I declare on any future application. No doubt prices will rocket, so I have a decision to make considering the death in service benefit from work etc

How have they suddenly come to see these records?

Some advisor said me and my we would be better with a joint policy, so we went along with it

And why the yearly check-ups? Is this a condition of your critical illness cover?

No, just the 40 year, and 50 year standard ones…

How have they suddenly come to see these records?

Would be my question. And what was the wording on the original proposal that needed you to disclose advice. It would make most of us that age uninsurable.

We were initially refused joint life cover as MrsMC disclosed (quite rightly) her cerebral palsy. I wrote back with specific wording for an exclusion that they accepted.

My background was in motor/property claims, not life insurance. Confirmed my view that underwriters, like politicians drafting legislation, know the square root of **** all.

Alternatively, take the refund, get your medical records updated, go on a nice holiday.

no doubt will be penalised as I have had cover cancelled

Er, yeah! You better check you can get ANY insurance after that. I was blacklisted for not disclosing information a while back. In the end had to write to the CEO of Legal & General to get it removed from my records as it was genuine mistake. They. Are. Bastards.

Some advisor said me and my we would be better with a joint policy, so we went along with it

That’s pretty shitty advice, when I took mine (and the wife’s) out the basic advice was never alter the cover as it would never be cheaper (for that policy). If more cover was needed take out a new policy and that would be costed on the information at the time it was taken out.

Confirmed my view that underwriters, like politicians drafting legislation, know the square root of **** all.

That’s my wife’s conclusion too – she sell commercial insurance and is always arguing with underwriters! They live in a world of spreadsheets and have never sat in front of a customer.

Some advisor said me and my we would be better with a joint policy, so we went along with it

Right, but that still doesn’t explain why they’re motivated to look back at your med records going back to 2012, or did you disclose it this time around?

I’d be more worried about the cancelled insurance as you have to declare that – get onto them to get it removed as it can affect your ability to get any insurance.

They are nothing more than a modern day Dick Turpin !  My son had a policy cancelled for motor insurance, some months into the policy, as they decided they were no longer insuring young drivers in BMW’s, despite accepting his policy 3-4 months earlier. He got in touch, cancelled it himself (so not to have the record) then had to re-insure. He’s complained but they don’t give a stuff and definitely don’t adhere to the ‘rules’.

Thing is they will try and get out of anything.

Right, but that still doesn’t explain why they’re motivated to look back at your med records going back to 2012, or did you disclose it this time around?

No – just signed the standard waiver to say they could look at medical records.

Of course this sort of thing can have the effect that anyone asked about their alcohol intake will say less than 14 units a week.

2

Turn 52 on Saturday, the reason they were looking at my policy is because me and my wife were advised a joint policy would

…by someone who stands to earn commission from selling you the new policy presumably?

Is 52 or 53 milestone birthday?

It is if it’s your last one.

The rules have changed since I last worked in insurance, but I think they’d have to show that you failed to disclose the information after they asked the question. The onus to show that is on them. Unless they can show that there was a very general “has the doctor ever given you any advice” (which may still be unreasonably broad) I’d be arguing, as any cancelled policy will have to be disclosed and I doubt the Meerkats etc will be able to find insurers who will take you without punishing you for it.

We took Co-Op to task on this a number of years ago (felt a bit more justified to quibble as they are supposed to be an ethical company that exists for their members). It was back when an agent would visit, ask a list of questions and then set everything up. We felt uneasy that anything we answered might not be conveyed correctly, so requested a list of the questions and answers. Written down, it looked like there were lots of things deliberately designed to give them get out clauses. e.g.

Have you ever:

Big list of things. About ten items down “Attended a hospital?”

What an open ended and vague question – when asked that on the spot, how on earth do you answer that completely and accurately? What and how long counts as “attending”? How far back – the sliced finger I had as a kid? My wife had recently had a child – so do we list every clinic visit? In the end we listed anything that could be seen as significant (a couple of things we discussed with the agent weren’t written down) and said they had permission to access our records NOW and review but wouldn’t accept them quibbling on something in 20 years time (to which they agreed).

Things could be worse, mind;

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/unitedhealthcare-shooting-inevitable.html?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=user/intelligencer

Deny. Defend. Depose.

I’m happy to chat off a public forum if helpful if you want to message me.

I went for a medical in Munich prior to getting my private health insurance. Doctor asked how much I drank. I told him 1-2 beers a day. He scoffed and put down 0.

Confirmed my view that underwriters, like politicians drafting legislation, know the square root of **** all.

This.
Our life cover was / is through Summit who are specialists in outdoor sports cover. My last job as Chief Instructor at outdoor centre saw dozens of insurers refuse to cover me because climbing particularly. There were no questions about what training and qualifications I had, the regular updates to that training, the weekly inspected kit I used, the qualified colleagues I climbed with, or the fact that climbing at an outdoor centre is basically safer than the drive to the crag….numpties.

The last time my Dr asked me about my alcohol intake I said “I’m certain I never exceed 14 units a week”. He said “Ooh, you’d better cut down, that’s not advisable.” I was “Eh?”. He thought I’d said 40!

Conversation overheard while waiting outside a doctor’s office many years ago (don’t ask…):

Doc: Do you drink?

Scaffolder (about 5′ tall x 5′ wide): A bit, yes

D: How much?

S: About a hundred pints a week

D: Don’t you think you should cut down?

S: I have…….

When they asked about my drinking, I said that there were weekends that I would exceed the 21 unit guidelines, but on the whole I don’t drink in the week, have long periods without drinking.

A bit more detail might be required but if this sentence means what I read it to read, the onus of responsibility to sort this sits with your GP. “there were weekends” – what does this mean? Is that a once every 5 years reunion of old friends where you go a bit wild and the Christmas 3 years ago where Aunt Maud got you to finish the whole bottle of advocaat with her? Or does it mean the first, second and third weekend of every month with a vowel in the name? I hope your GP drilled a bit deeper into your answer before putting that you need to reduce your consumption on your notes…..in the second case it’s absolutely reasonable to say you need to cut down (drinking above the old recommended limit most weeks but doing it in binge form which is much worse for you)  but in the former I’d say it’s borderline litigiously defamatory.

What is clear is that having anything negative on your medical notes can have consequences. And GPs as gatekeepers of the notes need to be trained to appreciate the consequences and flippant judgements can’t happen. Men are crap at going to the doctor at the best of times….and this doesn’t help! My local healthcare group wrote to me and about 2000 other patients on behalf of them and NHS apologising profusely that some data balls up had happened and all my medical notes had been electronically destroyed. Whilst I’m cynical that they are not there somewhere on a backup server, I’m taking it as a bit of a win.

Interesting. Here we have “My Health Record” which pools all your results, medical visits etc and stores them online. When you’ve had appts, what meds, what investigations and results.

I had a brief dabble with an anti-depressant for generalised anxiety but stopped taking them after a few weeks. On MHR it’s down in the summary with the meds I was on and “depression” next to it. I’ll see if I can get that updated as I’m sure that’s the kind of thing insurance companies could use to hamper any potential claims. I’d rather avoid any potential payouts for my family should the worst happen!

Asked my wife who is in this field, she says it sounds very odd, the fact they have refunded you would imply its an error on their side and they should not have covered, not that you failed to disclose or made a mistake.  But its very odd after you’ve had the policy for so long.  She also said they don’t access medical records without your permission and there needs to be a reason

I’d be on the phone asking them for a detailed breakdown of the decision and the timings of when and why they were accessing your data