BRCA2 and Life insurance

Hi BriM_94

I might be wrong, but I think insurance companies are not allowed to discriminate against people that have had genetic testing. Knowing you have a mutation is a positive not a negative piece of information. You can disclose that you have had the testing and they will hold it on record, but it should not push your premium through the roof because of it.

I'm BRCA2 and 42 and bought a house last year and did the online comparison sites and then spoke over the phone to the ones that had competetive quotes. I think my top ones were Scottish Widows and Vitality Life. I had a PBM and recon around 6 years ago and both these companies viewed that as a positive because I had already taken steps to reduce my lifetime risk.  But again if you havent thought about having surgery yet, don't let this aspect rush you. Screening programs are still effective at giving you piece of mind for many years if/and/or/when you start thinking about any preventative surgeries. I had yearly MRI's for nearly 5 years before my surgery, but then I was in my early 30's when we discovered the mutation in our family so it made sense to get the op before I turned 40 as that seemed to be the age in my family that others started having issues and developing breast cancer.

They will ask about you family history health and again I think it's important to disclose everything you know and confirm the company is still happy to cover you for those conditions before proceeding with you policy.

I have no dependents and live alone so I only had a policy that covers critical illness cover in then end and where I work has great benefits that cover me for income protection so I had no need to add this to my cover.

I went with Vitality Health in the end mainly because their customer services seemed to deal with my BRCA2 status professionally and they have other perks and rewards that were appealing to me.

If you have any other questions that I haven't covered with above please feel free to ask.

Kind Regards,

Anne

Thanks so much for your message Anne, it was so detailed and helpful! Google is a great place to start with these things but you can definitely go down a rabbit hole, so it's good to hear some real-life experiences. I'll start contacting companies again, you've helped a lot with the overwhelm :) 

Bri