Mortgage Protection with high BP , Cholesterol, Type2 diabetes & high BMI

A-GG

We are in our 50’s and had a real challenge on our hand to get mortgage protection insurance as my wife had type 2 diabetes with a really high HbA1c (81) reading and high blood pressure of 155/90 along with very high BMI of 36 and I had elevated cholesterol 7.1 and white coat syndrome for high blood pressure at 165/82 if I got my blood pressure checked at GP with a BMI of 32. lion.ie was amazing to work with and gave us precise advice on how to approach the insurers for getting our mortgage protection in place. They took our blood reports and other Medical data and approached the underwriters in advance securing pre approvals which was amazing as we had got a lot of postponements due to our tough medical health .They then guided us through the PMA process whereby our GP had to fill PMA report for us . I was anxious , nervous & frustrated and would call and email multiple times asking questions and following up on status and was always responded to courteously and in a timely fashion.

I am sharing this feedback so that folks know that it is possible to get mortgage protection even with medical conditions. A few guidelines:

GP follow up on PMA reports: The insurance company will send the request to your GP by post for your medical report after 1 week of you making your application. Your GP should call you stating there is a PMA request to ensure you are okay for them to send a report. Please ensure you call your GP after one week if you don’t hear anything. Post this your GP will ask for a prepayment to the insurance company before they send the report , they normally will send a invoice using the free post letter which came from the insurance company requesting your report( this takes 2 weeks) . The insurance company takes 2 weeks to make the payment from when they receive the invoice. The GP takes 2 additional weeks to confirm receipt of the payment after the insurance company makes the payment. The GP then sends the report after 3-4 weeks of receiving the payment. Our process took 13 weeks in total from us making the application to our insurance company receiving the Medical report.

Full Blood Tests & 24 hours BP monitoring : Plesse ensure you get this done at your GP 3 weeks prior to making your application. It takes 2 weeks for your blood reports to come back . If you have medical issues , it helps if you share your blood reports and 24 hrs BP report with your agent as they can get pre approval from the underwriters.

Be honest with your Property auctioneer agent: Be upfront and tell the agent with whom you have gone sale agreed that a PMA is required for you to get mortgage protection and that you cannot sign the contract till you secure this. All auctioneers understand this and Will give you the time required to get this in place if you are honest and upfront about this and mention this right away. They will negotiate with the sellers which will give you peace of mind.

Speeding up the process : You can offer to pay the Euro 280 per report to your GP asap and also let them invoice the insurer so that they get double paid. Just be honest with your GP and say you don’t care about the money. You will see you can cut the lead time from 2-3 months to 10 days with this approach. It has to be a independent report from your GP which means you cannot expect a refund of Euro 280 once your GP gets paid from insurance company. This is my advice , but pls follow what is right for yourself.

Health outlook : Quit smoking , drinking and exercise and try to lose weight , it all helps specially if you have health issues. Your doctor will write a positive comment that you made significant changes to your life style positively if they see you lost weight and improved your BMI. Trust me it’s worth its weight in gold , specially if you have significant health challenges.

Amount & Duration of policy : Always ensure you add on a extra year and an additional Years amount on to the policy, it helps with any delays in drawdown and offers you flexibility if you need to wait or change mortgages in future.

Hope folks with High BP , Type 2 diabetes and elevated Cholesterol and High BMI find this useful and all the best.