*Warning, in this episode we are going to be discussing some of the uncommon but serious side effects of taking weight loss drugs. If you, or a loved one, are taking these drugs, you might find some of the details in this episode to be upsetting*

 

Hi everyone, we are back and talking about the use of weight loss drugs and getting protection insurance. Millions of people in the UK are now taking drugs like mounjaro and ozempic, to help them reach a healthy weight.

Health professionals and insurers have said for many years that having a higher BMI isn’t healthy and can lead to long-term health complications. Weight loss drugs are proving to be a highly effective way for people to lose weight, which is generally seen as a good thing. But, there are side effects to taking the drugs too and at the moment there is very little long-term data to know what this may mean for someone 5, 10, 15 or 20 years down the line.

The key takeaways:

• The use of weight loss drugs is showing very positive results from short-term data
• There is not enough long-term data around the use of mounjaro, ozempic, or other weight loss drugs, for insurers to completely understand client risks
• Two case studies of arranging life insurance for people who are taking or have taken mounjaro

It has been a super intense start to the year, we were caught in the snow and school snow days have certainly had an impact on my timings. At this moment I’m not sure what the next episode will be covering but make sure to tune it as I will be bringing you even more protection insurance insights.

Remember, if you are listening to this as part of your work, you can claim a CPD certificate on our website, thanks to our sponsors PlannerX.

Kathryn Knowles  00:11

Hi everybody. We are on season 11, Episode Seven, our first episode of 2026. Alan is here with me again, and we’re going to give you some insights into arranging protection insurance for people that are currently taking or have recently taken weight loss drugs such as mounjaro and ozempic. So this is the practical protection podcast you

 

Kathryn Knowles  00:40

Oh, so Alan, how are you? How are things at the moment? Obviously, I know, but our listeners would like to know

 

Alan   00:50

I’m doing very well. Thank you. Yeah, all is good. It kind of New Year, isn’t it now, but feels as if Christmas and New Year were

 

Kathryn Knowles  00:59

forever many, many moons ago,

 

Alan   01:03

but we’re all thrown back in at the deep end. But we had a lovely break over Christmas period and everything back to work. And yeah, all is always good.

 

Kathryn Knowles  01:10

Thank you. I love the way you say that, and I’m so I sat here thinking, yes, there was a week of snow. The children were off for longer and all this stuff. Love the kids want them at home all the time. However, that combined with work is not the best ever situation, but I hope everyone else has had a lovely time getting back into the swing of things this year. So mounjaro and ozempic weight loss drugs. They are very, very topical at the moment, especially for people who are working in protection insurance and for a number of different reasons. Obviously, quite a lot of people are starting to take these drugs now, and they can have a very specific influence and effect on insurance. And I think one of the biggest things that we’re seeing is probably people feeling maybe a bit confused as to why it would have an effect. Because people think, Well, surely losing weight would be a positive in terms of long term health and things like that. But also sometimes just knowing, well, where does it actually come up in the insurance applications? Or even if you might be speaking to a client at the start and everything’s going exactly as you expect. Then you’re doing the application, it suddenly pops up. Your recommendation could potentially change.

 

So let’s go into a little bit of the background of things, and then I will get some information from Alan to help us. Sorry, help you all in terms of helping your clients. So mounjaro, ozempic, wegovy, whichever ones you want to talk about. So they’re now prescribed for people with type two diabetes and a high BMI by the NHS, and this has been happening since around November 2023 but people can also privately purchase the medicines through to through a pharmacy if they have a higher BMI. And there’s quite a difference between what you need since the fact that for the NHS, you need to be totally diabetic and have a high BMI, and that that higher BMI kind of classification is very, very different if you go for private. So I think I can’t, I know Alan, you’ve got the figure. I think it’s a BMI of 27 or more

 

Alan   03:15

private usually, I think last I saw on the NHS, it’s like a BMI of 40 plus, and it would be diabetes or heart disease, something like that, alongside it. Whereas to purchase it privately, usually requires a BMI of 20. I think it’s 20. There’s 27 and the 30 isn’t there with it. So I want to say 27 plus with medical conditions, or 30 plus without general guidelines.

 

Kathryn Knowles  03:39

So so yes, so there’s, there’s quite a range as to as to when people will be starting to take these so the active drugs in these medicines are basically designed to increase the amount of insulin that the pancreas is producing, which will lower blood glucose levels, such as what’s known as the HBA 1c which is why it’s so closely linked to diabetes, where the HBA 1c is absolutely key for their health and reduces a person’s appetite. So basically, it just stops you feeling hungry. So people just stop eating, really. And the key thing that we need to be talking about as well. I mean, there’s loads and loads of things to be talking about this, but there’s very, very mixed results at the moment, and it’s very, very mixed data. So obviously this became prescribed on the NHS in November 2023 so at best, in terms of the NHS, we only have two years worth of data from it being prescribed on mass in a sentence to the population. And that’s not a lot of data for insurers. So insurers obviously assessing risk from all kinds of areas, all kinds of medical conditions, but usually they have decades worth of data. So cancer, heart attack, strokes, type two diabetes, those conditions in themselves, they have. Have, I said, decades worth of data. They can really see the long term implication, you know, somebody who had a heart attack 40 years ago, then they can absolutely say, well, actually, if someone had a heart attack 40 years ago, then right now, we would expect X, Y, Z to be happening. So they’re not being able to see that right now with the weight loss drugs, and it is causing a bit of uncertainty with insurers.

 

So in terms of some of the more common side effects, which aren’t some of these aren’t necessarily going to affect insurance, or maybe even the long term concerns of insurers, but some of them could. So you’ve got things like nausea, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea are very, very common, especially when people are starting the drugs or potentially changing the dosage amounts. You then also have things like low blood sugar. It’s quite common patients who have, say, patients. You can tell I was looking at a medical thing when I wrote that in people who have diabetes. But you can also get things like headaches, drowsiness, dizziness, confusion, fast heartbeats and sweating. Now that comes from, that’s from a government, UK Government website, in terms of some of them symptoms, and some of them could, in themselves, potentially influence those side effects. Could potentially influence insurance options. You know, if you are having consistent unexplained headaches, if you are feeling incredibly weak or dizzy with no explanations, no investigations, if you’re having fast heartbeats without investigations that could potentially affect your protection insurance application.

 

Alan   06:32

We’re going to say one of the things I find quite interesting about things like nausea and gastro problems as well, from someone whose weight has fluctuated quite a lot, and you know, I’ve done all sorts of diets, from keto to fasting to just eating healthy or eating absolute rubbish. But when I have a significant change in my diet, even if it is just restricting my calories, then my stomach can, of course, be affected. So actually, how much of this is the medication? Because the nausea senders, yeah, happen quite early on. They usually as people are introduced. So is it the fact that it’s the medication, yeah, for an entity obviously entering the body, or is it actually that the, you know, that person’s diet is changing

 

Kathryn Knowles  07:14

absolutely and the other thing as well, as you know, if I’m feeling particularly hungry, I can feel quite nauseous. So if somebody, I mean, this is masking the hunger symptoms. So the person might be hungry, in a sense, but not feeling it, but the nausea from feeling hungry is there exactly. So what

 

Alan   07:28

it actually does is it suppresses the hormones in the body. So it’s what’s it called, GLP one, isn’t it? And gip hormones, and they’re what make you feel full. They will recognize after you’ve eaten and things like that, and it’s a bit basically suppressing them. So I guess, in reality, you are hungry still, or are you still? Yeah, maybe that need there. But actually you’re just not feeling it. You’re almost masking it, aren’t you?

 

Kathryn Knowles  07:51

Yeah, absolutely. And I think as well, just in terms of why there’s still so much confusion or uncertainty, potentially with some insurers. It’s the fact that, you know, there is such a range of studies that are shown. And I appreciate the media can sort of say almost anything and everything that they want at times, but you know, there are certain studies. So European Medicines Agency showed that if the medicines were administered for 72 weeks of over a year, the weight loss range was between 5% and almost 21% I mean, a 21% weight loss is is pretty well all of that’s impressive, but, you know, but also that is quite significant. So it would indicate that, especially if someone’s had this is that their BMI was quite significantly higher if they’d lost 20 21% of their weight. But then you get other things as well to say, like, you’ll get the BBC that says, Well, studies now show that if you’ve taken this you actually regain weight four times faster than you did before. You know, as soon as you stop taking the medication, you’re just gonna put the weight back on. But then you’ve got the Guardian who’ve said, Oh, well, we’ve got studies that show that people sustain the weight loss for three years after they’ve taken it, which is really confusing, because we’re not even three years past the NHS, sort of like administering it and started saying it so, so it is just very, very confusing.

 

I know, obviously I’m pushing that. I mean, I’ve looked at scientific journals, I’ve looked at case studies, I’ve looked at media, and I know that insurers and reinsurers will have far more data that’s far more accessible to them to look at this, but it’s clear that it’s just there is not enough information right now for it to be an absolute, oh yeah, this is just a really simple process, and that the insurers can go, Well, we’re looking at you now, and We can see that the risk in 30 years time will be x, y, z. And the reason as well that I’m saying that is we will go through this. So if anybody is taking these weight loss drugs, what I would like to just preempt you now, if you know someone close to you, is we’re going to be talking about the complications with these drugs as well. We’re not going to talk about all of them. There are more than what. Stating, but we’re only going to be covering the ones that would have an effect, potentially protection insurance, but some of them are pretty intense,

 

Alan   10:09

but also pretty rare. I think, yes, as with any medication, you know that there can be side effects and there can be risks associated. But I think the most serious ones do appear to I mean, you look at how many people take these medications at the moment, two and a half million people, isn’t it? 4% of the UK population, nearly three and a half 4% so it’s a huge volume of people. So these are relatively rare side effects. But obviously some people do react in these ways, absolutely.

 

Kathryn Knowles  10:37

And I think again, just going back to what we were saying about why the insurers are probably finding it tricky is the fact that these are rare complications, but they can be quite significant complications, but at the moment, it’s a case of, well, how do they know who’s going to be complicated with this or not, in a sense. So let’s get into it also. Alan, what are underwriters looking for, when it comes to things like mounjaro, ozempic any of the weight loss drugs? Yep, no, absolutely.

 

Alan   11:06

So I guess the first one is going to be, which one of the medications is the person taken? Now, as you said, there are a few different ones. There’s ozempic, there’s we gobby, which are, in essence, both the same active ingredient behind it, which is semaglutide. You’ve also then got mounjaro, which is almost a stronger one. It’s a bit of a dual one. Is this. It does, does suppresses two hormones rather than one. And this is a terzapatide. Now, you don’t need to know those necessarily, but they’re obviously, they are phrases that you might might hear so find out which one. Now, it probably doesn’t hugely matter which one they are taking, but obviously it’s just good information to have for the insurance company. And I guess where that is probably more relevant is if people are swapping and changing, you wouldn’t want to see people on more than one of these. I mean, that just shouldn’t happen anywhere. But obviously, if people are moving between them constantly, it’s maybe not working things like that. I would say the most key information for people taking weight loss medication is their current height and weight and their previous height, height and weight. What that will give you is their BMI. As we know, insurance companies do still work off BMI.

 

It is a broad brush, but it’s the only one that they currently have to work on. So you need to find out what weight the person was prior to taking the medication. And also the other part on that is, how long have they been taking that medication for? Now, what this does is this then paints a picture as to how much weight has been lost and how quickly it’s been lost. And as you said, it can happen very, very quickly. People can drop 20, 25% of their body weight in in months. You know, with these insurance companies prefer it to take longer. They prefer steady weight loss rather than a huge drop. But obviously any drop in weight is always going to be a good thing for for insurance companies, within reason, I was

 

Kathryn Knowles  13:18

going to say, because there is also, just to be careful on that there is times that the insurance companies go, wow. Companies go, wow, that weights a

 

Alan   13:24

bit too low. Yeah, absolutely. And I’ll come on to an example, actually, where I did hit a roadblock for somebody who was taking it privately as well with a low BMI. But then, you know, the other thing is complications. We just talked about that, but have there been any side effects or any complications as a result of taking these medications, and then your last thing is just going to be other associated conditions. So we know that if somebody is NHS prescribed, they are probably going to have something like diabetes, heart disease, BMI, would have been over 40 at some point. So looking into these sorts of conditions that would have probably been weight related conditions as well, and obviously, just get as much information on those as you possibly can.

 

Kathryn Knowles  14:09

I think interestingly, also in terms of the clients that we’ve spoken to, I think a lot of them actually more private.

 

Alan   14:14

Yeah, absolutely. And I can’t remember the stat, but it’s something like one and a half million people are doing this privately, possibly up to 2 million. So when you look at two and a half million people in total in the UK taking these, the vast majority, by the looks of it, will be paying privately, yeah, and bit of a digression here. But to me, it’s really interesting, because yes, this is a medication. And yes, obviously you said about, you know, the data. I mean, there has been clinical studies on these, and you know that we use for diabetes previously and things like that as well. So it’s new now for the weight loss side. But you know, a lot of people are paying for these privately. So yes, it is costing the NHS, but ultimately only for the people who are at a serious risk. Yeah, I. But the obesity in itself, cost the NHS billions. It’s such, you know, an expensive thing for the NHS. You know, high risk. I think we’ve done podcasts on this before, but have cancer, strokes, heart disease, blood pressure,

 

Kathryn Knowles  15:18

the increased risk of a higher obesity, exactly.

 

Alan   15:20

So. Actually, yes, there might be risks associated with taking these, but is that risk greater or less than basically, carriers?

 

Kathryn Knowles  15:31

That’s the thing. I suppose people would say, is it better for you to be a BMI of 50 for 30 years, or is it better for you to take a drug that still in the grand scheme of medicines and insurance still in its infancy, in many ways, is it better to do that and then hopefully remove a lot of those long term complications? You know it is. You can understand why a lot of people are doing

 

Alan   15:55

it absolutely and to go back to my point then, and I’ve realized I’m jumping into underwriting a little bit with this, but where I have had a couple of clients now who have taken weight loss drugs when they are already in a healthy BMI, as in, started it now, how they get that? I don’t know, because a online pharmacy or any accredited pharmacy shouldn’t be prescribing these unless somebody’s got a BMI of 27 or 30 plus. Seven or 30 plus. But I’ve had a couple who have got them at BMI of 24 and 25 and have taken them because they want to lose some weight before they go on holiday. Yeah, actually, insurance companies didn’t like that. Now, we did find them cover, and we did get them it, but a lot of insurance companies said, Well, why are they taking that medication? Yeah, and therefore they postponed the cover until offering the cover until, basically they were off. Yes, weight loss drugs.

 

Kathryn Knowles  16:50

It’s tricky, though, when you say that, because obviously, in terms of, like me personally, obviously I have had weight issues, you know, and start like being heavier and lighter and stuff like that. Now, what I would say is, because I can understand the people that you’re just mentioning there, the cycle. Mentioned there the psychology behind it, because so I have a BMI of 19.9 now that is there due to eating, healthy exercise, things like that, but I see people, I know people who have taken these weight loss drugs who are not, even though I’m 19.9 BMI, they’re thinner than me, so obviously their BMI must be, you know, pretty low now. And, you know, obviously I’ve still got parts on me that aren’t turned. I’ve got bits where I can see that there’s some fat, you know, stalls on me, especially my hips and my thighs. And this part of me sometimes feels really jealous that I can’t, you know, obviously I’m thinking it’d be lovely, because I just because now I’m just about getting my body fat down. It’s just like, God, if I just took one of those meds, I could get my body fat down, and it’s and I’m not going to, but it’s tempting. I can understand why people be doing it.

 

Alan   17:50

It is so I was chatting to a friend of mine who takes mounjaro recently, and she described it as a cheat code that was her, her words, not mine, by the way. She basically, she loves it. I said it’s absolutely amazing. Tried to lose weight many, many times, struggled with it, taken this, and actually she almost belittles herself a little bit with it, and says, Well, I’ve not done anything. All I do is take this medication. All I do is have this and all you know, my response is that it’s not a cheat code. It’s a tool, you know, in the same way that diet is, that exercises it is. It’s a tool in the tool belt sort of thing, you know, you use it. You don’t abuse it. You use it to help you, but at some point you’ve got to wean off it as well, and you’ve got to come off it. And then you, you know, you’ve got to maintain and manage that yourself. So, yeah, it’s a little bit of a digression, but for me, it’s not, it’s just another tool that people can use safely. Yeah, effectively, it’s got to be the key point,

 

Kathryn Knowles  18:54

okay, Mike, we need to get back on track. Yeah, we both did it next, next bit. So, in terms of, sort of, like, we were talking about the concerns and the complications, so, so you’re saying about how, like, the insurers like it to ideally, the wit have come up, probably more progressively, rather than significant drops on point. And obviously that is a lot to do with, like, you know, the potential strain on the body, in terms of just the the organs and everything is Tom having to deal with a completely different body than they were before. But when you actually look at the risk warnings and things like that from the different companies, and these risk warnings are ones that I’ve taken directly from the actual manufacturers guidance and things like that, it’s, a bit like, you know, those risk warnings that you get in your medicine packet that says, Don’t do this if you don’t take this, if you’ve got this and this. So there’s quite a few things. So it’s to say, like he actually says, and obviously, just warnings to people who are taking this, obviously, is that these are.

 

Other complications, but they are still there, is that it does actually increase the chance of thyroid cancer. It increases the risk of acute pancreatitis, which I have to say is I’ve saw my mom go through pancreatitis, and that is not a pleasant thing at all, and that has left her with very long term health complications. You have things like hypoglycemia, hypersensitivity reactions to psychological reactions, to things severe gastrointestinal reactions. You can have dehydration that can lead to kidney problems or other acute kidney injuries. If you have diabetes and have diabetic retinopathy, it can cause complications for that, but it also, they can also just cause problems and changes in vision anyway. And then you have things like the heart rate increase. You can have issues with gallbladders. And then one that really, I was like, oh, right, it’s a pulmonary aspiration, which basically was if, if you were on these medications and you need to be sedated, or, like, put into, like, under like, proper general anesthetic, that it can be pretty dangerous.

 

So you can understand, when you look at those things, why some like what you know, quite a few in showers are still pretty uncertain, because, you know, obviously as to what to do, because you’ve got the increased risk of cancer, which obviously, as with anything so like, if you want in critical illness cover, or something like that, then that is something that would be potentially considered. You’ve got the acute pancreatitis. Well, major organ transplants can obviously, wouldn’t necessarily have that pancreatitis, but if your pancreas starts playing up, you’re then immediately into more diabetes area, which can then have implications to everything else. You’ve got, the kidneys, you know, you’ve got the vision. So to do with the blindness, aspects of critical illness cover, there’s a lot here that has potential offshoots towards increasing a risk of a claim on certain policies. So it does make sense when people are uncertain as to why insurers are a bit like, not too sure about that, as to why we’re seeing that, but Alan, I can see that you’re ready to jump in with

 

Alan   22:09

some thoughts. You know, this is just another tangent, and it’s just a thought, but while pre shared, obviously these are potential complications, and obviously, like anything, it’s a little bit like vaping

 

Kathryn Knowles  22:22

and things like that. Yeah, and you can see that alcohol can be linked to a couple of

 

Alan   22:25

things as well. The more we see this being used, the more data will present some people with complications will come up. Obviously, we will see what happens people when they come off the medication, where they regain where they don’t in time, whether it brings down the NHS, you know, cost and funding for obesity related conditions. So there’ll be a lot of time to see but, but interestingly, you know, anything to do with weight loss and diet and food can have impacts on things like this. So my head, when you were released talking about those, went straight to the ketogenic diet. So keto diet and carnival diet as well, which is a new sort of FAB type one where people just literally eat meat. And whilst they can result in weight loss, because, you know, effectively reading fats and proteins which satiate you and make you feel full, they can lead to other issues, liver conditions, kidney problems, high blood pressure, heart disease, you know, things like that. There are associated things, but yet a diet like a keto diet will never be picked up in an underwriting application.

 

Kathryn Knowles  23:28

I know. Well, that is, yeah, that is really interesting. I mean, so something else that just popped into mind then, just quickly, because I don’t want to forget this saying, is that when we’re saying about these rare complications, and we’re talking about the data that’s coming in, and I’m really not trying to be like, I’m I’m kind of talking, I think from the insurer side, in some ways, I’m trying not to, but I’m also trying to, so I think, from their point of view, is that, you know, obviously, with the insurer, is that okay? So these are the rare complications that they’re seeing from, I’m going to say, a smallish group of people in general, with the less than three years worth of data. So these rare complications are actually from people who’ve taken this for less than three years. So actually, for an insurer point of view, well they have obviously, are these actually complications that are far more encompassing, but actually for most people, it won’t hit them until 10 years down the line, potentially. So it’s really, you know, I can understand why it’s been quite tricky, but you’re absolutely right in terms of the diet. But I think with some things like that, though, it won’t necessarily come up, but some insurers do still ask about, you know, extreme weight fluctuations in the last 12 months. So there would be some kind of discussion in some ways.

 

But like we said, you know, it’s about the amount of red meats and that. And I was just looking at something sad. Children naturally love sausages and bacon and all this stuff. But I just came across something, didn’t I with the WHO World Health Organization, where it’s actually certain processed meats are now classed as the same level of carcinogenic and. Concern as alcohol and tobacco, and it’s like, wow, you know, obviously, so actually, certain meats have a really high risk of causing cancers in the long term. Like I said, that won’t come up in these applications insurers. That’s not a thing for me to say. Kids start asking people how much processed ham they eat on any given week. But, you know, there are lots and lots of different things, but I think this is just because, obviously it’s such a new thing, and there has been so you know, when we’re seeing complications, it’s seeming like quite when it is rare, but it seemed like quite extreme reactions to it that I think that’s why it’s caused a little bit of concern. So what are we expecting? Alan when it comes to underwriting, and I see, I think this is a complete mix at times, you know, and it really, really does depend upon your research and finding the right insurer.

 

Alan   25:55

So yes, first thing I will say is credit to insurers for this, because I think they have done incredibly well with this. I understand why they’ve done incredibly well. You look at the numbers, and two and a half million people and rise in taking this, you know, such a big percentage of the population and likely of insurable age as well, because you’ve usually got to be 18 plus, and you don’t see many sort of 80 plus year olds taking this so this is the demographic insurers are looking for. If they hadn’t have done something with this, well, actually, they would have excluded a big part of the demographic of people that they’re hoping to ensure so they’ve had to do it, but credit to them, they’ve done very well because they are offering cover. They are offering cover well, and yeah, you can find cover for the majority of your clients. So as you said, this is a little bit of a scale, little bit of a variation, but so I’ll try and give a few examples. If you have got a client who has got started at a normal BMI, so I’ll give you an example.

 

I’ve got a client who has been taking mounjaro now for about six, seven months. She started at a BMI of 29 if she’d have applied for life critical illness and income protection with a BMI of 29 she would have been standard rates. Her BMI is now 23 and she’s starting to wean off the medication. I have got her standard rates. We are looking at standard rates across the board for all products she would have been previously. She is still looking at standard rates because the BMI is normal. Some insurance companies will put on a nominal loading just for the weight loss medication. So expect some insurers to do a 25 to 50% increase on some or all of the products, just for having the weight loss medication. But if you shop around, you may very well find, like I did, that you could get standard rates. Now that’s, I guess, a normal kind of rate case, in a sense, where it would have always been lower BMI. Where it gets interesting is where somebody’s got a higher BMI to start with.

 

So let’s go to the other extreme. And let’s say that you had someone with a BMI of 60 would have likely been virtually uninsurable, as we know we could probably place something, but it would be very, very restricted for somebody with a BMI of 60 they have then lost, oh, I don’t know, kilos and kilos or stones and stones, and got their BMI down to 30. And they have done that in the space of, let’s say, a couple of years. Yeah, you know, they will probably also have diabetes or heart disease or something. That’s not a definite, but it’s likely. So you will see a loading for whatever those associated conditions are, heart disease, diabetes, etc, is normal, but insurance companies will generally not just say, well, we’re happy now you’ve got a BMI of 30, and we will load you on that, which might have been a plus 50 As a rough guide, what they will usually do is put 50% of the weight back on the person, which sounds really brutal when they’ve worked so hard to lose it, but going back to that point of what happens when they come off the medication, has the underlying issues of the weight gain to that level ever been addressed and will they get because we see it with gastric sleeves and Gastric bands and things like that. A lot of not everybody, but a lot of people put weight back on, I guess afterwards, some years down the line.

 

So insurance companies are almost covering themselves for that. So this client with a BMI of 60, now 30 might be assessed around a BMI of 45 plus whatever that other medical condition now that still puts them into a decline with pretty much every single standard insurer. You’re looking a couple of specialist insurers who might just look at that, yeah, so again, worth but, and that’s why it’s so important to have that extra information of where they started and where they are now. Now that is a little bit of a kick to that person. And he says, Yeah, because they’ve done so well, and obviously in such a good position. But the positive is, maintain it, see it a little bit longer, and obviously it will get better, because they’re each other point where insurance companies don’t add that weight back on. So to be confirmed as to what that is, because it’s a little bit per insurer, and then you’ve got everyone who sits in the middle, so someone maybe with a BMI somewhere between, say, 30 and 40, for example, probably insurable before, but with a loading might not have the same complications. They might have brought themselves down to a standard terms BMI. BMI was 40 is now 25 technically, should be standard rate. But again, using that philosophy of putting 50% of the work back on.

 

We know they’re probably going to still get loaded, not as harsh as they would have been for a BMI 40, but they might be treated around mid 30s, which might result in 50, 75% loading. Life, cover, kick, critical illness, sorry, and income protection, all available income protection and critical illness cover are obviously a little bit stricter. I haven’t seen any exclusions applied. I think it would be very hard to exclude things like this, personally, in the same way, it would be very hard to exclude high BMI or obesity, for example. But just bear in mind that critical illness and income protection usually have an upper threshold of BMI of around about 40, give or take a little bit life insurance, typically 5055, with more specialists. So actually, you are always going to be more restricted for critical illness and income protection. Yeah. Have I missed anything does that?

 

Kathryn Knowles  31:35

I think you’ve missed one thing from your notes. Go on, what was it? What somebody who is in a healthy BMI and still taking the medication? Yeah.

 

Alan   31:46

So are we thinking somebody here who started in a healthy BMI, or it’s in your notes? Fair enough? So yeah, I guess you’ve got people, because I’ve already covered the people, the person maybe with a BMI of 29 where they would have been standard and came down to, say, 23 but if you’ve got somebody who, say, started at a BMI 40 or 45 and they’re now at a BMI of, you know, 2324 they should be starting to wean off that medication. You know, usually the pharmacy, the doctors, etc, would not want to see them coming down to BMI of 20 and still being on these medications. How insurance companies will treat that, I guess, is going to be very case by case, they’re going to look at it. Going to assess a lot of these cases go for doctors reports and things like that. So they’re going to be looking for the fluctuations. And again, this will come out more and more as time goes on. But are people increasing decreasing. Are they coming off? Are they coming on again? Are people borrowing the pens off friends because they’re no longer wrong? We see this as well, you know. And then this is potentially a problem because, you know, it almost becomes a little bit addictive for some people, in the same way that gyms can be, and weight loss in general, and dieting, it can all be sort of an addiction to, not a physical addiction as such, but more of, I guess, a social addiction. So our people, you know, if, if I, if I was an underwriter, and I saw a doctor’s report, and it said, you know, they came off the Medicare came off the say, mounjaro, because BMI was normal, but it went up a little bit, so they went back on it again. And then we brought them off. But then the customer said that they borrow their friends every now and then because they just want something. Well, I’m not sure I would want to insure them, because the idea of borrowing

 

Kathryn Knowles  33:32

medication, prescription, ultimately, it’s medication. You don’t follow medication

 

Alan   33:36

exactly, but yet, there are people who are absolutely doing this. Yeah. So, yeah, it’s a bit of a digression. Yes, it’s just an evolving area.

 

Kathryn Knowles  33:45

So absolutely, and I’m going to redirect you to your notes that say postpone. There is a situation where people are being postponed. That’s what I’m trying to get to.

 

Alan   33:52

So I kind of already mentioned this earlier. I just brought it forward a little bit. So it was the example that I gave for the client who had a BMI of 2425 Yeah, and was getting, somehow getting hold of the medication because she wanted to lose weight before she went on holiday. The majority of insurance companies were postponing based on that, so, yeah, kind of covered it a little

 

Kathryn Knowles  34:16

bit earlier. Okay, then right. So I’ve got some examples. So two case studies we have the first person, mid 50s, non smoker. They have some high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and the BMI was over 40. So they’d been taking mounjaro for four months, continuing to still take it. They’d lost nearly two stones, so they were just now a little over 39 with a BMI. There were some other little, little health complications that wouldn’t have affected terms. And there was some close family members, actually, with with heart attack and stroke it at quite young ages, actually, which you know, could potentially be considered. But for this person, decreasing life insurance of £70,000 of a nine year. Was £17.47 per month. And then the next person was in the late 40s, non smoker. They take them on job for 12 months, and lost 18 they lost eight stone even. And they were starting to come off the medication. And so the BMI was now a little under 23 so they were in that healthy range, as we say, was starting to wean off. Now they wanted £150,000 level life insurance over 25 years, and that was £29 per month. So thank you everybody for listening. I hope this has helped. Thank you Alan for joining me again. Welcome.

 

Alan   35:32

Thank you for having me again. Very well, not kicked me off yet. No, not yet. And I would say

 

Kathryn Knowles  35:36

usually, next time come back and I’ll be chatting about this, but I haven’t decided what I’m going to chat about. So it’s just going to be Kirsty rock up and see what I’m not talking about. If you want to get a CPD certificate, please visit our website, practical hyphen protection.co.uk. And we get these thanks to our sponsors, next gen planners. See you soon. Everybody. You you.

Transcript Disclaimer:

Episodes of the Practical Protection Podcast include a transcript of the episode’s audio. The text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record.

We often discuss health and medical conditions in relation to protection insurance and underwriting, always consult with a healthcare professional if you are concerned about any medical conditions and symptoms we have covered in any episode.