Long Covid Sufferers Being Denied Insurance Coverage

Insurers are denying life, critical illness and income protection insurance to people suffering long-term consequences of Covid-19, and some are already making vaccination against the disease a prerequisite of coverage.

A many as two million people in the UK are suffering from long-term effects of infection with SARS-CoV-2, with symptoms ranging from fatigue to anosmia (loss of sense of smell). Long Covid is expected to become a public health crisis that may linger for years, and insurers are worried about its impact on policyholders’ health and ability to work. 

Insurers are bracing for an avalanche of claims on existing critical illness and income protection policies. They’re also tightening eligibility criteria on new policies, with some insurers requiring applicants to disclose whether they’ve had coronavirus, even if they only experienced mild symptoms and have since recovered. 

This is despite previous reassurances from the insurance industry.

Last year, amid worries that healthcare workers would be denied coverage or have their claims rejected if they tested positive for the virus, the British Medical Association (BMA) extracted a promise from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) that positive tests don’t impact insurance.

In a joint statement they said: “Each application for life insurance and income protection will be assessed on an individual basis, regardless of profession, and focused on the person’s health and severity of any symptoms at the time.”

But a year later and applicants are reporting being turned down for policies. NHS workers have been rejected for the life insurance cover that is often a prerequisite of a mortgage and people with lingering symptoms are being denied critical illness cover, even if they’re back at work and their bout of long covid is minor.

Most insurers are now asking if the applicant had the virus, research by MoneyMail revealed. And some have admitted that previous hospitalisation with the virus could impact coverage or premiums.

• Aviva: wants to know if you have tested positive for the virus in the last 30 days or if you have ever been hospitalised with Covid-19. It says that disclosing a Covid-19 infection is unlikely to affect your eligibility for insurance or premiums as long as you’re symptoms have fully resolved—unless you were hospitalised.
• L&G: asks about any positive Covid-19 test over the last 30 days but says the answer won’t impact the premium quoted
• LV=: wants to know if you’re tested positive over the last 30 days. Disclosing a previous Covid-19 infection shouldn’t impact the price of your premiums unless you were hospitalised and so long as your symptoms have fully resolved.
• Royal London: most applicants will just need to disclose if they’ve tested positive for the virus in the last 30 days. However, if you’ve disclosed another medical condition, you’ll need to say if you’ve ever tested positive.
• Vitality: asks if you’ve ever tested positive at any point but doesn’t say how that will impact your application or the cost of your premiums.
• Zurich: wants to know if you’ve tested positive for the virus in the past three months. Your critical illness policy won’t be impacted unless you required hospital treatment. Applicants for income protection may be postponed, pending a review of symptoms.

All insurers stated that disclosing symptoms of long Covid could result in your application being turned down. The ABI confirms that customers who are still experiencing symptoms and working full-time are “unlikely” to be approved for critical illness or income protection policies. This is also the policy for those with other ongoing medical conditions. Your application for life insurance may also be affected.

Additionally, some insurers are asking applicants to confirm they’ve been vaccinated when applying for life insurance. This is the case with one unnamed insurer, which has made vaccination a prerequisite for life insurance policies with high sum insureds—eg cover for very wealthy people.

Experts say that it’s the unknowns about the coronavirus—and its long-term effects—that are sending insurers running scared.

Insurance consultant Kevin Carr says: “It makes sense insurers will want to wait and see before they give income protection to long Covid sufferers. They want to see if they can still do their job.”

The coronavirus crisis has already been very costly to insurers. They're expected to pay out more than £200 million on coronavirus-related claims on life, critical illness and income protection policies filed in 2020—and that's not yet counting those from this year.

So whether or not we’ve had Covid, we’ll all pay the price on our insurance premiums. According to one comparison site, the price of income protection policies has risen by 60% in recent months.