In health insurance, medical underwriting is the process used by the insurer to assess the risk posed by pre-existing medical conditions. Conditions may be excluded from cover altogether, excluded under certain conditions or completely covered.
This article is meant as no more than a summary, a full understanding of your underwriting can only be achieved by reading the full terms and conditions of your policy.
The types of underwriting explained;
Full Medical Underwriting (FMU)
Each person to be insured provides details of their medical history and the insurer will usually add exclusions for the conditions described.
Further details of FMU underwriting.
Moratorium Underwriting (NMori)
The applicant provides no details of their medical history at the application stage. At the point of claiming the insurer will underwrite the condition related to the claim. Typically, pre-existing medical conditions from the 5 years before the date of applying for the policy are excluded for the first 2 years, to become covered the insured needs to have had 2 consecutive years free of treatment, advice, medications and symptoms for the condition.
Further details of Moratorium underwriting.
Medical History Disregarded (MHD)
This is typically used for larger company schemes where all pre-existing medical conditions are covered.
Further details of MHD underwriting.
Continued Personal Medical Exclusions (CPME)
If you “switch” your insurance to a new insurer and your original underwriting was FMU, the new insurer may adopt any exclusions applied by the current insurer, this is known as CPME underwriting and occasionally CME (Continued Medical Exclusions).
Further details of CPME underwriting.
Continued Moratorium (CMori)
If you “switch” your insurance to a new insurer and your original underwriting was a moratorium then the new insurer may take over the terms of the original moratorium. The new underwriting would be known as a Continued Moratorium.
Further details of Continued Moratorium underwriting.
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