Chronic Illness and Insurance in Ireland: What Insurers Care About

Having a chronic illness is rough. There’s no polite way to dress that up.

Everyone knows someone living with one.

A neighbour managing diabetes.

A parent with MS.

A friend with Crohn’s who disappeared for a while.

Or maybe it’s you — which is why you’re here.

Roughly one in four people in Ireland lives with a chronic condition. Yet almost nobody talks about the financial side of it — especially what happens when insurance comes into play.

This page isn’t about coping strategies or positivity quotes. It’s about what insurers actually do when chronic illness shows up on an application, and how to avoid creating problems that don’t need to exist.

A diagnosis is rarely the deciding factor

This surprises most people.

In underwriting terms, the label itself matters far less than how the condition behaves in real life. Insurers are far more interested in how long you’ve had it, how stable it’s been, whether treatment has settled, how often you’ve needed medical intervention, and whether it affects your ability to work.

Two people with the same diagnosis can get completely different outcomes.

That’s because insurers aren’t really asking “what is it?” They’re asking whether it’s predictable, whether it’s controlled, and whether it appears to be getting worse.

This is where much of the fear comes from. People assume a diagnosis automatically means refusal. In reality, most chronic illnesses are insurable — if the application is handled properly.

What insurers usually focus on (and what they don’t)

When insurers assess chronic illness, they tend to focus on patterns rather than labels.

They look closely at things like time since diagnosis, consistency of treatment, recent flare-ups, hospital admissions, medication changes, and whether the condition has caused extended time off work.

What often matters far less than people expect is the name of the condition on its own, old symptoms that are no longer relevant, or one-off investigations that didn’t lead anywhere.

This is why generic online advice can be actively unhelpful.

Chronic illness underwriting is not one-size-fits-all.

The hidden risk nobody warns you about

This is the part that causes the most long-term damage — and it’s almost never explained upfront.

Once an insurer makes a formal underwriting decision, it doesn’t vanish.

If you apply to the wrong insurer first and they request extensive GP reports, postpone your application, apply heavy loadings, or decline outright, that outcome usually has to be disclosed to the next insurer.

Suddenly, what could have been a straightforward application becomes complicated — not because of your health, but because of the order things happened in.

This is why bank-led and direct-to-insurer applications often cause problems for people with chronic conditions.

There’s no pre-check.

The application just goes in, and the consequences are dealt with later.

How different insurers can reach different conclusions

We see this all the time.

One client in their early 30s had a stable chronic condition alongside a strong family history of cardiovascular disease. Several insurers wanted significant premium increases. One assessed the overall risk differently and offered standard terms.

Another client with an autoimmune condition had been stable for years, with settled medication and no recent flare-ups. One insurer wanted to postpone pending further reports. Another accepted immediately with no delay.

Same person. Same facts. Different outcome.

The difference was knowing where to apply first.

Life insurance, mortgage protection, and chronic illness

Most people with chronic illness can still get life insurance and mortgage protection.

You may pay more than someone with no medical history, but outright refusal is far less common than people expect.

Income Protection and Serious Illness Cover are more restrictive once a diagnosis is in place. Even then, it’s often still possible to insure against future, unrelated conditions.

Why doing this without guidance is risky

This isn’t about filling in forms neatly.

It’s about choosing the right insurer before anything is submitted, framing medical history accurately, avoiding unnecessary medical evidence, and protecting your future insurability.

Once something is on record, it’s very hard to undo.

What to do next

If you have a chronic illness and are thinking about insurance — or you’ve been putting it off because it feels intimidating — the safest next step is to pause before applying anywhere.

We speak to insurers confidentially first. No formal applications. No underwriting trail. No accidental damage.

If you want to move things forward, you can complete the short medical questionnaire below or get in touch to talk it through.

Complete the questionnaire →

Thanks for reading

Nick

Editor’s note: First published May 2018 | Fully rebuilt January 2026 to reflect current Irish underwriting practice, insurer risk assessment, and the real-world risks of applying in the wrong order.