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What must you tell the insurer before you buy health cover?

Checked 27 September 20263 min read

Short answer

Tell the insurer about illnesses you already have, medicines you take, and hospital stays in the past, before you pay. The proposal is the record they will open if a claim is large. Leaving a diagnosis off that form does not make the illness new. A parent with an existing illness is the case in whether they need their own policy. Changing insurer is portability, and it still needs this declaration. This page is a checklist for what to write down. It is not legal advice, and it is not a prediction of how a dispute will end.

What people forget is still a declaration

A pre-existing disease is a condition you were diagnosed with, treated for, or knew about before the policy start date. The wording in your contract is the definition that counts. In practice, the arguments start from items that never felt like a “disease” when someone filled the form in a hurry. Write the year of diagnosis if you know it. “Since long” is not a date the claims desk can use. If you do not remember, say that you do not remember and attach what you have.

  • Diabetes, blood pressure, thyroid, asthma, and heart disease, including a condition a parent is “managing with tablets.”
  • A surgery, a biopsy, or an admission, even if you were discharged in two days.
  • Tests a doctor called abnormal and then asked you to repeat.
  • Medicines bought for months, including those a family member ordered in your name.

What a waiting period is doing

After you declare an illness, the insurer can accept it with a waiting period, charge a higher premium, or refuse the proposal. A waiting period means that illness is not payable until the months on the schedule have passed. Accidents and illnesses that are genuinely new can still be covered if the contract says so. Read the line for your condition. A banner about day-one cover is often about accidents only. If a claim is refused because you never declared the illness, you are in a dispute about the proposal, not about the waiting period. The papers that matter are the proposal, the doctor’s notes from before the start date, and the rejection letter. Contesting that letter is a process with the insurer and, after that, the insurance ombudsman. The outcome depends on those documents.

Who should stop at the proposal

Stop if the seller tells you to leave a known illness blank so the policy “gets issued.” The premium you save is the claim you will argue about from a hospital bed. Stop if you cannot get the waiting period and the loading in writing before you pay. A verbal “it will be covered” from the person who sent the payment link is not the policy.

Questions people ask next

Do I declare an illness that was cured years ago?

Declare it, with the year and the fact of recovery, if the form asks about past treatment. The insurer can still treat some conditions as relevant. Hiding a cured condition because it feels finished is how a form becomes inaccurate.

The corporate plan never asked. Do I still declare on a retail policy?

Yes. The retail proposal is a new contract. What your office plan already knows is not copied across unless you are porting under a process that says so, and even then you answer the new form.

Can the insurer look at old reports only after I claim?

They can ask for history at claim time. That is why the proposal is the place to put the history. A report that existed before the start date and never appeared on the form is the document both sides will argue over.

Sources checked

Regulatory rules and product terms can change. We checked these sources on 27 September 2026.