car insurance and medical conditions

kholl79

does anyone know why drivers with medical conditions get treated so differently by car insurers to everyone else? I'm 31 have 4 years no claims bonus and i'm being asked fo a minimum premium of £809 to insure a 54reg 1.6 Peugeot 307! Does anyone know where you can get insurance any cheaper?

dacouch

A lot of medical conditions are ignored by Insurers, some such as certain types of diabetes can attract a loading

If you don't mind disclosing what medical condition is it?

kholl79

It's epilepsy, has been under control for years due to the use of prescribed medication. I passed my bike licence in 2003 too and changed to a car 4 years ago. Never had an accident

dacouch

Epilepsy can be a problem with a lot of Insurers, there are however companies that will not load or apply a small load if the condition was diagnosed over a certain amount of years ago and there have been no attacks in the last few years.

Try a local broker (Not Swintons) they will normally have an agency with a company called Fortis who are good on Epilepsy.

You may also find some useful advice or links to Insurers on this website (Or other Epilepsy Associations) http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/search/google?cx=009825845580393679967%3Agkxhw7wn3ks&cof=FORID%3A11&query=insurance&op=Search&form_id=google_cse_searchbox_form#905

drew2k9

most insurance companies will not charge extra if you have medical conditions, as this would be discriminatory, although they can add an endorsement which states that they know of your condition and that if you have an accident as a direct result of that condition they reserve the right to not pay out any claim. so you need to be careful with this. it may seem that some charge more, but they are more likely to not put the endorsement on and that means you would be covered if your condition caused an accident, but if you pay less yearly and have an endorsement on then if you have a condition related accident they wont pay out.

so basically you need to check about the endorsements, and get it straight with the underwriters that they will pay out if something like that did happen, or if you are confident you will be fine and the correct authorities have cleared you medically to drive then you could also take the risk to pay less and not be covered if something along those lines did happen.

sounds unfai i know, but its all part of insurance, and its unfortunately a legal form of discrimination, but not classed as discrimination.

people are treated differently due to where they live, its not their fault they live there, but it will be a higher risk, same as its not your fault you have that condition, but you will be seen as a higher risk. to the company you are a "risk" not a person, we all are!

dacouch

drew2k9 wrote: »

most insurance companies will not charge extra if you have medical conditions, as this would be discriminatory, although they can add an endorsement which states that they know of your condition and that if you have an accident as a direct result of that condition they reserve the right to not pay out any claim. so you need to be careful with this. it may seem that some charge more, but they are more likely to not put the endorsement on and that means you would be covered if your condition caused an accident, but if you pay less yearly and have an endorsement on then if you have a condition related accident they wont pay out.

so basically you need to check about the endorsements, and get it straight with the underwriters that they will pay out if something like that did happen, or if you are confident you will be fine and the correct authorities have cleared you medically to drive then you could also take the risk to pay less and not be covered if something along those lines did happen.

sounds unfai i know, but its all part of insurance, and its unfortunately a legal form of discrimination, but not classed as discrimination.

people are treated differently due to where they live, its not their fault they live there, but it will be a higher risk, same as its not your fault you have that condition, but you will be seen as a higher risk. to the company you are a "risk" not a person, we all are!

Do you have any evidence of these endorsements eg particular Insurers. Under the Road Traffic Act the Insurers have to pay the third party claim, if they do have this endorsement you mention they might be able to try and recover the outlay from the policyholder. I have never heard of this system you mention so would be interested in an any information you have on this.

The facts of the matter are that Insurers can charge more for medical conditions, however if they do thy have to be able to back up why they are loading with data showing a particular medical condition increases the chances / costs of a claim.

drew2k9

dacouch wrote: »

The facts of the matter are that Insurers can charge more for medical conditions, however if they do thy have to be able to back up why they are loading with data showing a particular medical condition increases the chances / costs of a claim.

well basically what you said there, these endorsements vary from company to company and the extent to which they restrict payments also varies and the circumstances also dictate the payments etc.

so basically it is very varied as to who pays what. but it is in the more extreme cases like you said if they can prove it increases your risk factor.

with epilepsy usually the dva will assess through a doctors exam if you are passed fit to drive, if you are then norally the endorsements are precautionary on the insurers part.

if an insurer knows you have a condition that could affect your driving, then you crash into someone else, the insurer could be in all kinds of trouble for letting you drive!

bazster

My OH is epileptic. When she was diagnosed, she had to surrender her licence until she had been seizure-free for a full year. When she got her licence back, I called our car insurance company. They told me that, although we were required to disclose the condition, if DVLA was happy then insurers were not legally allowed to discriminate by charging additional premium.

I've since changed insurers several times, dutifully disclosing the medical condition every time, and never been charged additional premium, as far as I know.

dacouch

You mention endorsements and in your previous post you mention that some Insurers can avoid paying the claim even if you have declared the medical condition.

The Road Traffic Act does not allow an Insurer to exclude endorse the third party payments part of the policy. Can you clarify what you actually mean as people could read your posts who have medical conditions and mistakenly think they are not covered by their policy

raskazz

bazster wrote: »

They told me that, although we were required to disclose the condition, if DVLA was happy then insurers were not legally allowed to discriminate by charging additional premium.

They are entitled to charge an additional premium but the Disability Discrimination Acts require that in order to take any underwriting action, the insurer must have valid statistical evidence on which to act.

Most insurers do not load the premium where the insured has a notifiable medical condition, where the insured has notified the DVLA and the DVLA have agreed to the issue of a licence.

The reason why most do not load the premium is that generally there is insufficient data on which to put forward the standard of proof required by the Disability Discrimination Act. Insurers cannot 'pool' medical conditions to assess any change in risk and also cannot commission third-party research purely to assess any change in risk due to medical conditions.

Occasionally you still see policies endorsed with medication clauses, and for people with missing limbs etc endorsements are sometimes added to warrant that the insured vehicle (and any vehicle driven under the 'driving other cars benefit') are suitably adapted.

kholl79

My licence is listed as restricted 3 years +, if you go to obtain a quote and place in your details as an ordinary full licence holder you get a standard quote. Change the licence to a restricted 3 years + and the cost will shoot up as much as 18% + in the majority of cases. I'm currently using a Rover 216 SI and live in an area which is very quite and you hardly see the police or hear of anything happening, yet my cover for this car with 4 years no claims stands at a whopping £510. Which is pretty peculiar as my brother and his partner own a Peugoet 307 2.0 XSI and live in a far worse area and are both on a policy for just under £500. Thank you all for your help.