Asthma and insurance underwriting

Asthma is on a very large number of New Zealand applications and in most cases it changes nothing. Underwriters distinguish between a controlled condition managed on routine preventer treatment and a pattern involving frequent symptoms, escalating medication, urgent care attendance or time off work. Those sit at different places in the rating table.

The single biggest interaction is with smoking. Asthma in a non-smoker with settled treatment is usually a non-event. The same asthma alongside a smoking history is assessed considerably more cautiously, and that combination is where loadings appear.

The follow-up set is short and focused on control.

• When it was diagnosed and whether it is childhood or adult onset.
• What medication you use, including preventers and relievers, and how often.
• How frequently you have symptoms.
• Whether you have had any hospital or urgent care attendance, and when.
• Whether you have needed oral steroid courses, and how often.
• Whether you have taken time off work because of it.
• Your smoking and vaping status.

Evidence commonly requested

• A GP report confirming the medication and consultation record.
• Occasionally lung function results where the picture is more involved.

What underwriters look at over time is a settled medication regime, a low frequency of symptoms, no urgent care attendance and no time off work in the record. Smoking status is read alongside, and a documented change there is one of the clearest things that alters the combined assessment. A loading applied to a more involved picture is worth revisiting once there is a longer settled record.

These are the details that decide whether the cover does what you expected. Read them before you compare on price.

• That the assessment is about control, not the diagnosis itself.
• That hospital and urgent care attendances are asked about specifically and will appear in your notes.
• That smoking status interacts with asthma more than with most other conditions.
• That childhood asthma with no current treatment is still disclosable.
• That frequent reliever use is a question, and an honest answer is better than an optimistic one.

Every New Zealand insurer writes applications involving asthma to its own wording, and the words are where the money is. Two policies that look identical on price can pay very differently when it matters. Closing that gap is the entire job of an adviser.

• Insurers set their thresholds for asthma differently, particularly where a smoking history sits alongside.
• An adviser can present the medication and consultation record clearly rather than leaving it to be inferred.
• Where a loading is applied for a more involved picture, an adviser can diarise a review.
• For applicants who have stopped smoking, an adviser knows which insurers recognise that soonest.

There are three ways to buy life cover in New Zealand, and they are not equivalent. You can buy direct from one insurer, which means you see one product range and one underwriting appetite. You can buy through your bank, which usually means a single insurer’s product sold under the bank’s brand, often with narrower definitions. Or you can go through an adviser, who quotes several insurers at once and is required to put your interests first.

The premium you pay is the same either way. Insurers build adviser commission into their pricing whether or not an adviser is involved, so going direct does not get you a discount — it just removes the person whose job is to argue your corner at application and at claim time.

• An adviser can see which insurer is currently taking your health history on standard terms, and which one will load or exclude it.
• An adviser can structure cover across two insurers if that produces a better outcome than putting everything with one.
• An adviser handles the underwriting back-and-forth, and is the person who chases the claim when a family is least able to.
• An adviser has to document why the recommendation suits you, which is a written record you can hold them to.

We are a referral service, not an insurer. We do not quote premiums and we do not sell policies. What we do is put you in front of one licensed New Zealand adviser who can compare the market properly.

1. 1

   You tell us what you are looking at

   The form takes about a minute. Nobody asks for your medical history on a web form — that conversation happens with the adviser, properly, and only once you have decided to proceed.

2. 2

   An adviser calls you

   A licensed New Zealand adviser talks through your situation: who depends on you, what you owe, what you already have in place, and what you are actually worried about.

3. 3

   They compare the market

   The adviser quotes across the major insurers, checks which of them will take your health history on the best terms, and puts the options side by side in writing.

4. 4

   You decide, in your own time

   There is no obligation and no cost to you. If the answer is that you already have enough cover, a good adviser will tell you that.