Taking no risks

Advances in medical science may have made it possible to treat the once-untreatable, but more and more advisers are finding that getting clients reasonably priced health cover is tougher than getting to the top of an NHS waiting list. Premiums have always been higher for those clients insurers considered to have a special health risk. This so-called 'loading' of premiums occurs because having such a risk will, underwriters predict, make them more likely claimants, and therefore more expensive in the future. What is now worrying advisers is that the definition of 'special risks' has wid...