Life Insurance With an Eye or Hearing Condition

What Underwriters Look At

Which parts of an eye or hearing history might an application ask you about?

An application may ask when it began, what treatment followed and how things are now, and your records can show each part.

We’ll start with the eye or ear history an insurer may ask about, set out from your own records.

The insurer’s underwriter decides whether cover is offered, and on what terms. For an eye or hearing condition, the questions can cover one eye or ear or both, the cause if it’s known, whether things are stable or changing, any treatment, aids or implant, and your test results. Your occupation and daily duties can be considered too, since they show how much your work relies on sight or hearing.

What an insurer may ask about, eye and ear alike:

• One eye or both: which is affected, the cause if known, and the vision in each eye
• Glaucoma or keratoconus, and whether your sight has stayed stable or changed between eye checks
• Eye treatment such as drops, injections, laser, cross-linking or surgery, with the dates of each
• Any visual field and eye pressure results, from your optometrist’s or ophthalmologist’s reports
• Hearing loss in one ear or both, the cause if known, and whether your hearing is changing
• Any hearing aids, cochlear implant or ear surgery, with the dates and how your hearing has been since
• Tinnitus or vertigo: when the symptoms started, whether a cause was found, and any time off work
• Daily duties relying on clear sight or hearing, such as driving, machinery or phone work, described accurately

Life Insurance

What would help the people you love with the bills if something happened to you?

A life insurance lump sum can be paid to your beneficiaries, giving them money for the bills and everyday costs.

We can show you what a life application asks about the cause behind an eye or hearing condition.

Life insurance can pay a lump sum if you pass away. For an eye or hearing condition, a life application can look past the sight or hearing itself to its cause and anything linked to it: whether uveitis has an underlying condition behind it, whether other causes of vertigo were ruled out, and whether a loss of sight followed an injury or an illness. We’d want to understand that history before anything is said about cover.

What we set out with you for life cover:

• Uveitis or iritis, and whether a specialist found an underlying condition behind the episodes
• Ménière’s disease, and any tests your doctors used to rule out other causes of vertigo
• Loss of sight in one or both eyes, and whether it followed an injury, an illness or another cause
• Hearing loss with a known cause, such as otosclerosis or noise, set out from any audiology reports
• Glaucoma or macular degeneration, with any treatment so far and how long ago the diagnosis was made
• A past retinal detachment, with the date of any repair and how your vision has been since
• Low vision since birth, described with the cause where known and how you manage day to day
• Eye drops, steroid courses or other medicines for an eye or ear condition, each listed with its start date

Learn more about Life Insurance

TPD Insurance

If you could no longer work at all, how would you want your costs met?

TPD insurance can pay a lump sum towards those costs when you can’t work again, as the policy defines it.

We can compare TPD definitions with you against work that relies on your sight or hearing.

TPD insurance pays a lump sum if illness or injury means you’re unlikely to work again, as the policy defines it, and each insurer has a different definition (Moneysmart). Own occupation looks at the job you were working in before your disability, and it’s usually only available outside super. Any occupation looks at any job suited to your education, training or experience. Inside super, one policy says the super law’s permanent incapacity definition must also be met.

What we read with you in TPD wording:

• A TPD definition in some policies that names permanent blindness on its own, alongside the work-based tests
• An early part payment for permanent loss of sight in one eye, as the wording defines it, in some TPD held outside super
• The word “permanent” in a TPD definition, read alongside an eye or hearing condition that may change over time
• Own occupation TPD held outside super, and how it describes the job you held before your sight or hearing changed
• Any TPD cover in super, read against the super law’s permanent incapacity test as well as the policy’s own wording
• The occupation one policy measures for TPD: the work you did immediately before the illness or injury causing disability
• Any workplace adjustments for low vision or hearing loss, described as your job runs now for a TPD application
• Any lenses, eye injections, hearing aids or other ongoing sight or hearing costs, weighed in the size of a TPD sum insured

Learn more about TPD Insurance

Income Protection

Where would your pay come from if illness or injury kept you from working for a while?

From income protection, after a waiting period, part of your income can be paid to you while you’re away from work.

We’ll walk you through how income protection measures what you can still do when sight or hearing affects your work.

Income protection can replace part of your income if illness or injury stops you working, subject to its waiting period, definitions and exclusions. Some policies separate total from partial disability: one says that if you can perform any duties needed to earn income in your own occupation, you’re not totally unable to work under its terms, and it has a separate partial definition. The insurer assesses any claim against the policy’s own wording.

What we compare with you in an income protection policy:

• Total and partial disability wording, read against the duties you could still do if your sight or hearing changed
• For a changing eye or hearing condition, the occupation one policy fixes: the one held immediately before the waiting period began
• Work that relies on sight or hearing, measured against any suited occupation after 24 months in some to-age-65 benefit periods
• An eye or ear exclusion offered on income protection, read for what the policy still covers outside it
• Time off for vertigo attacks from Ménière’s disease, set against the waiting period you’re considering
• Recovery after eye or ear surgery, such as a graft or retina repair, and how a waiting period applies
• Any workers compensation for hearing loss from noisy work, if eligible, which one policy counts against its income protection benefit
• A higher premium quoted after an eye or ear assessment, weighed against what you can put towards cover each month

Learn more about Income Protection

Trauma Insurance

For the costs that can follow a serious illness, what would you like to have ready?

Those costs can be met by a trauma lump sum, for a listed condition that meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded.

Together, we’ll read the sight and hearing events in a trauma policy, each in its own definition’s words.

Trauma insurance pays a lump sum if a listed event meets its definition. Among other events, some policies list blindness, deafness, and loss of sight in one eye or hearing in one ear, each worded as permanent, to a severity the definition sets. New trauma cover can’t be held inside super, which has been the rule for policies written since 1 July 2014. A condition you already have may be excluded on new cover, as an exclusion’s wording sets out.

What we read with you in trauma wording:

• Blindness in some policies: permanent, irreversible loss of sight in both eyes, to a severity the definition sets, confirmed by a specialist
• Loss of sight in one eye, which some policies say must not be correctable by surgical procedures, implants or any other means
• Deafness wording in some policies, which counts the loss of all natural, assisted and artificial hearing
• Hearing lost in one ear, which some policies define apart from deafness in both ears
• Surgical repair of a detached retina, which some policies list as a sight event, with laser surgery excluded
• A corneal transplant, or inner or middle ear surgery, listed among the sight and hearing events in some policies
• Glaucoma, keratoconus or hearing loss you live with now, and any exclusion a new trauma policy may place on it
• Wording in some policies linking a later sight or hearing claim to an earlier one

Learn more about Trauma Insurance

Answering the Health Questions

How much should you say about your eyes or ears when answering the health questions?

Answering each question as it’s worded, from your own records, can help you say what’s asked with reasonable care.

We’ll take each sight and hearing question with you as its own wording asks it, with your records beside you.

Since 5 October 2021, the duty when applying for consumer life cover is to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation, which means answering the questions asked with reasonable care. Under the model work health and safety laws, a worker who needs to frequently wear personal hearing protection must be given audiometric testing, so any such tests can help.

What we set out with you, from your records:

• A sight and hearing question that names tinnitus or blurred vision, answered as that form words it
• Glasses or contact lenses for long or short sightedness, answered as each form’s own sight question asks
• Eye pressure checks and visual field tests, with the dates, from your optometrist’s or ophthalmologist’s records
• Hearing tests done through work or privately, with the dates and any change between them
• Eye or ear surgery, including any cross-linking, graft, retina repair or grommets, with dates from your records
• An open referral to an eye or ear specialist, described accurately as at the date you sign
• Blurred vision, ringing or dizziness you find hard to describe, raised with us before the form is signed
• A parent’s or sibling’s diagnosed eye or hearing condition, where a form asks about family history

Applying With Help

Who helps with an application for cover, from the first form to the insurer’s decision?

Support runs from the first form to the insurer’s decision, so each step can be clear before you take it.

We can prepare an application with you, beginning with any eye or ear questionnaire an insurer offers.

One insurer offers questionnaires for an eye condition and an ear condition, which may let it make a decision without obtaining any medical evidence. Some insurers also offer pre-assessment, which gives an indication before you formally apply. If alternative terms are offered, they can be discussed with your financial adviser before you accept.

How we put an application together with you:

• An insurer’s eye condition questionnaire, where one is offered, completed from your optometrist’s or eye specialist’s letters
• Hearing test results and any ENT reports, used to answer an ear condition questionnaire if an insurer offers one
• Ophthalmologist, audiologist or ENT reports, collected for the underwriter once you’ve signed an authority for their release
• An eye or ear operation already booked, and whether to apply before or after the operation date
• A new eye test or hearing test still to come, weighed in the timing of an application
• An eye examination or audiogram the underwriter requests, with the result passed on with your consent
• Terms returned after an eye or ear assessment, read line by line with you before anything is signed
• A deferral after recent eye or ear surgery, and what an insurer may want to see before reconsidering an application

Cover You May Already Hold

Is any cover held in your super or your own name still the right fit?

Setting any cover you hold against your needs today can show what still fits before a policy, job or fund changes.

We can read the sight and hearing definitions in any cover you hold, before a change of policy, job or fund.

Cover you already hold was issued on its own terms, and the policy wording sets when they can change, so it’s worth reading before you change or replace it. Default cover inside super can usually be issued without medical checks, though it may carry pre-existing condition rules set out in the fund’s PDS, and increasing it is usually underwritten like any other application. As Glaucoma Australia notes, “Many Australians are unaware they hold insurance through their super fund.”

What we look through with you:

• Blindness and deafness definitions in any trauma policy written before your eye or hearing diagnosis
• The TPD and income protection occupation wording in any cover you hold, read against work that relies on sight or hearing
• Any part payment for loss of sight in one eye or hearing in one ear in your current TPD or trauma wording
• Default insurance through super, if you have any, and its PDS rules on an eye or hearing condition you already had
• An eye or ear exclusion already on a policy, looked at again with you once your sight or hearing circumstances change
• Sight and hearing wording in an older policy, set beside a replacement policy’s before any switch
• Time off for vertigo or eye surgery, measured against the waiting period, definitions and exclusions of any income protection you hold
• Insurance kept through a change of job, with its sight and hearing definitions read before you move

Learn more about Life Cover With a Health Condition