Hi I have MS.
My daughter is buying her first property and looking for a critical illness policy that would cover her in case she got the same.
Do you know of any companies that would be willing to provide cover to someone with a family history of MS?
You can PM me.
Thanks very much.
This might be one for a specialist insurance broker, I think.
If all else fails in getting reasonably-priced individual cover (and even if it doesn’t) another tried-and-tested way to protect oneself is through an occupational group pension/insurance policy. If that’s offered as a benefit as part of the contract of employment, it can be a very valuable one for people whose personal circumstances make it hard to secure value-for-money individual cover. In my personal opinion, it’s often worth accepting a lower salary if it comes with that kind of benefit built in.
Hi Hope. This MS Society website has a telephone helpline and also some info on finance etc including insurance. Just wondering if you have tried the helpline?
P.S I’ve just had a look at a couple of policies. They include MS as a ‘illness’ that is covered and my perhaps overly optimistic thinking is that an awful lot ( majority?) of people with MS have some sort of family history of MS ( in my case an Aunt) so the insurers must (?) have factored this into their policies
The genetic component in MS is complicated and not fully understood. The classic example is with identical twins (so they have identical genes), if one is diagnosed there is an increased risk the second one will also be diagnosed but by no means certain.
There are a few families where there are very strong links and these have been investigated and may help with identifying genes.
We tend to notice the cases where close relations suffer from MS, but it is probably down to a combination of noticing cases and people being diagnosed earlier because they recognise the symptoms.
See the link for the numbers.