Chapter nineteen
INSURANCE
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Chapter nineteenINSURANCE |
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Note: This is the original text of the chapter in the 1992 book and it has not been updated. Page numbers refer to pages in the book.
Car insurance
Holiday insurance
Household insurance
Endowment mortgage, mortgage protection policy, life insurance, etc
When you apply for insurance cover, whether for car, holiday, mortgage protection or life insurance, you normally have to declare any medical condition or disability. If you don't, then any claim you make later may not be met, so it's important to be truthful. However your declaration may mean the premiums are loaded, and may be unreasonably high. It pays to read the small print and to shop around for better deals. Check that any company you deal with is a member of the Insurance Ombudsman Bureau. If you have a dispute with the company, then the Ombudsman can (sometimes) help settle it.
Car insurance
The sort of car you get can make a big difference to the amount you pay in car insurance, even before any medical condition's taken into account, so find out about insurance ratings before deciding which car to buy.
You're required by law to tell your insurance company about any disability. RADAR, the Disabled Drivers' Association, the Disabled Drivers' Motor Club, and the Mobility Information Service (see page 187) can all provide information on car insurers with experience in dealing with disabled people, and there's a helpful chapter in Ann Darnborough and Derek Kinrade's Motoring and Mobility for Disabled People (RADAR) (page 180), which includes specialist brokers who say that premiums won't be loaded on account of disability. Included, too, are insurers for manual and powered wheelchairs. Two motor insurers which particularly cater for people with a disability are M J Fish and Co, and Leslie and Godwin.
Any driver or would-be driver who has a disability or medical condition requiring more than three months' treatment must by law also inform the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) in Swansea (MVLA in Northern Ireland). DVLA has its own medical panel of specialists who will ask to see your medical files if necessary and liaise with your GP or hospital specialist. They may also ask you to undergo an independent medical examination. If DVLA is satisfied and grants a licence then there should really be no need for an insurance company to insist on a separate note from your doctor, though some do.
Shop around. Always seek a number of quotations before signing on the dotted line for car insurance and consider whether the cover's adequate. Check too whether the policy covers personal accident. Some insurers delete this cover for disabled drivers. If you think you're being ripped off by an insurance company because of your disability, try the Insurance Ombudsman, and/or take your business elsewhere. Write too to your MP and the Transport Under-Secretary at the House of Commons. He's responsible for transport for people with disabilities.
Some organisations run special priority car breakdown services for car drivers and passengers with a disability. Some are limited to Orange Badge holders. Services and costs vary, including for instance roadside help, and help getting car, driver and passengers home or to their destination after a breakdown. More information from AA RADAR Group, Autohome Disabled Travellers' Motoring Club, National Breakdown, RAC Response.
Holiday insurance
Read the small print before taking out holiday insurance. See what it says about 'pre-existing medical conditions or defects'. You may not be covered if problems arise, which could result in horrific expense somewhere like the USA, for instance. Get RADAR's very helpful Holiday Fact Sheet listing insurance brokers who offer policies which don't exclude 'pre-existing medical conditions'. Insurance information's included too in RADAR's publications mentioned on page 278.
The Holiday Care Service, in association with the Home and Overseas Insurance Company, has a travel insurance policy for people with disabilities (send SAE for leaflet).
Household insurance
Arthritis Care has joined forces with insurance brokers Leslie and Godwin to devise a special home insurance policy called Arthritis Homecare. It provides standard cover, with special additions, eg wheelchairs and stairlifts.
Endowment mortgage, mortgage protection policy, life insurance, etc
If you want to take out an endowment mortgage, mortgage protection policy, or life insurance, you'll probably be asked to declare any medical condition or disability, and the insurance company may ask for a medical report on you. Since January 1989 you have a right to see a copy of any medical report.
When a company writes to a GP asking for a report they also have to write to the patient explaining that s/he has 21 days to obtain a copy if s/he wishes. Take this opportunity to check that it's accurate and to query anything you disagree with. If you and your GP disagree, you can include a note giving your views.
Sometimes you may have no problem getting the cover you want. After all, most rheumatic disorders don't reduce life expectancy. But some insurance companies won't, as a matter of principle, take on anyone with what they call 'impaired' or 'substandard lives', or they may make the premiums horrifically expensive. Again, it pays to shop around. One company which specialises in various types of insurance cover for disabled people is M J Fish and Co Ltd.
The National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society (NASS) has found that because many life insurance companies don't fully understand AS, they're apt to put a loading factor on a policy. NASS advises people to shop around if this happens, and if that fails, then NASS can give further advice. Over the last few years NASS has intervened with many companies on behalf of its members and got them to reverse their decision.