The Health Guide

Moratorium underwriting

Underwriting that automatically excludes recent medical history for a set period, usually five years.

You answer few or no medical questions at the start. Instead the insurer excludes anything you had advice, medication, treatment or symptoms for in a defined look-back period, commonly the five years before the policy started. If you go a continuous period — often two years — without advice, medication, treatment or symptoms for that condition, it can come back into cover. The trade-off is speed and simplicity at the start, in exchange for less certainty about what is covered until you claim.

Guides that use this term