Cancer: Financial Conduct Authority is concerned over discrimination by insurers, and no wonder

Watchdog wants to find out why cancer patients and others with medical conditions can no longer get cover that used to be easy to obtain

Cruising: The FCA highlighted the high cost of insurance to a cancer patient wanting to take a trip on a liner like this (Shutterstock)

Amidst what seems like unrelenting bad news, the Financial Conduct Authority seems set upon doing something humane and worthwhile when it comes to the issue of cancer patients and insurance.

The regulator has identified a real problem: people who once had decent access to insurance products have started to encounter serious difficulties.

It would like to find out why that is.

That there is a pressing need for work in the area can be seen from what is contained in an earlier paper on the subject of financial exclusion.

In it, the example of Alison was highlighted. A cancer patient in her 70s, with a hip replacement, she wanted to take a cruise but found that securing insurance was going to end up costing as much as the trip itself. This was despite the fact that, while her condition was incurable, she was at the time in question about as healthy as any other 70-year-old could expect to be thanks to the treatments she was able to take. Her doctor confirmed this. It didn’t seem to matter.

She did exactly what the industry keeps telling people they should do. She sought its advice. That included calling a helpline operated by the British Insurance Brokers Association. At no point was she pointed to better deals that might have helped her.

On a subsequent occasion she tried to organise a trip for a family group, only to find that the problem was somehow extended to those travelling in the same party, simply because she was down as the ‘organiser’. This meant that they couldn’t secure their own insurance, independent of her.

And insurers wonder why they have such a bad name.

Part of the problem may be caused by the industry’s desire to push its customers online. If you don’t fall into the “ordinary person” category required by the tick box forms found on insurers’ websites, you’re out. It is possible that one of the consumer’s greatest allies - the price comparison website - has played a role there too.

The growing use of automated systems may serve to further exacerbate the problem in future years, which makes the watchdog's work all the more timely.

Ideally, the study would extend beyond cancer. As someone with disabilities, I know from bitter personal experience how difficult insurance cover can be to obtain. However, the FCA tells me it is aware that there will be a read across to those of us with other conditions, and it intends for its work to benefit us too.

Well and good, because, as the regulator has pointed out, people are increasingly being told that the state isn’t going to look after them. They have to do it themselves. That being the case, there is a real problem if what is being offered by the market with that aim in mind fails large numbers of people. People who pose a relatively modest and calculable risk. People like Alison. People like me (and FYI I've never claimed off a travel insurance policy).

The only criticism I would level at the FCA is that its language is too conciliatory to the industry. It is along the lines of “we want to find out why insurers find it hard to provide cover to people with cancer”. I’d have asked why the industry thinks it’s ok to discriminate against people with cancer, and what measures could be taken to stop it.

But, given you would have thought that it would be the role of Government to solve on a problem like this, at least the FCA is there and doing something.

While ministers engage in the systematic trashing of the UK economy, I suppose we have to be thankful for small mercies.