INSURANCE RATING OF PATIENTS WITH INFLAMMATORY BOWEL-DISEASE - REPORTOF A CONFERENCE ON MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY

Patient members reported to the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Cana da (CCFC) about their difficulties to obtain insurance. In 1991, the L ay Board of the CCFC requested its Medical Advisory Board (MAB) to inv estigate this problem. At that time, insurance ratings could be illust rated by the 1985 edition of Brackenridge's monograph on life risks. T he MAB found that data on mortality were outdated. A conference on mor bidity and mortality of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) was organized by the authors and held in May 1992. Based on questionnaires to patie nts, evidence provided by invited speakers and the results of small gr oup conferences, it was concluded that patients with IBD have difficul ties in obtaining insurance, even though the quality of life and morta lity of IBD patients is not very different from that of the general po pulation. However, the mortality rate of the healthy insured populatio n is lower than that of the general population, and thus much lower th an that of IBD patients. Patients have a better chance to obtain insur ance if there is a close cooperation between the treating physician an d the medical officer of the insurance company. Changes have occurred since the conference held in May 1992. The recent edition of Brackenri dge's text (1992) provides a better prognosis but unfortunately unchan ged rating for patients with IBD than did the 1985 edition. Close coop eration between the Patient Advisory Committee of the CCFC and the Exe cutives of the Canadian Life Insurance Medical Officers Association ma y further improve the insurance rating of patients with IBD.