Pre-Existing Diseases (PED): What You Must Know Before Buying

A pre-existing disease (PED) is any condition diagnosed or treated before your policy starts — diabetes, hypertension, thyroid disorders, cardiac history, and dozens more. Insurers treat PEDs differently, and that difference is exactly where good advice earns its keep.

What insurers can do: apply a waiting period (typically 2–4 years) before the condition is covered, add a premium loading, add a permanent exclusion, or decline the proposal. Different insurers make very different choices for the same condition — one company's decline is another's standard acceptance with a 2-year wait.

The golden rule: never hide a PED to get a cleaner offer. A concealed condition discovered at claim time can void the entire policy — not just the claim for that condition. Full disclosure with the right insurer beats non-disclosure with any insurer.

What matters when choosing: the PED waiting period (shorter is better), whether the insurer offers waiting-period reduction riders, how the condition is defined in the policy wording, and the insurer's actual claim behaviour for that condition — which is knowledge that comes from settling claims, not reading brochures.

Our approach at Conflux: we start from your medical history, not from a product list. We know how the major underwriters treat diabetes with good HbA1c control versus poor control, hypertension with and without complications, and post-procedure cardiac cases. That's how clients who were declined elsewhere end up properly covered.

If you've been declined, loaded heavily, or are simply unsure how your condition affects your options — that conversation is free, and it's the one we're best at.