Chronic condition
Updated
Chronic and pre-existing are different questions
A condition can be chronic and new — diagnosed after the policy started. It can be pre-existing and acute — a fracture that healed. The two words answer different questions: how long will this need treating and did it start before cover began. A table of benefits usually answers both separately, and a plan can be generous on one and restrictive on the other.
The sub-limit is where the money is
Where a plan states chronic cover as a sub-limit — a figure well below the annual aggregate limit — that sub-limit is the real cover for a diabetic client's medication, not the headline number. Pharmacy sub-limits interact with it: a plan with generous chronic cover and a small pharmacy limit still runs out.
Why the medical application form asks
Chronic conditions drive the loading or the exclusion an insurer applies at underwriting. That is what a medical application form is for, and why plans requiring one behave differently at quotation from plans that do not.
Where this comes up
Related terms
In Rabt
Every one of these is a field in Rabt
Co-pay, network, age band, waiting period — Rabt holds them as data on the plan, so a quote states them the same way every time and a comparison can line them up.