UnderwriteMe has updated the underwriting questions on its Protection Platform following a sharp rise in applicants reporting the use of medical weight-loss treatments, including drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro.
The platform recorded 739 disclosures of weight-loss treatment use in the past 12 months, reflecting wider national trends.
An estimated 26.5% to 29% of UK adults are living with obesity, and around 2.5 million people are thought to be using weight-loss injections as demand rapidly increases.
The enhanced question set introduces more detailed queries on the type of treatment prescribed, duration of use and its impact.
UnderwriteMe said the changes will ensure insurers receive the information needed to make accurate underwriting decisions and, where possible, continue to offer buy-now outcomes. Seven insurers currently offer buy-now decisions subject to the updated responses.
The update follows extensive collaboration with insurer partners as the industry adapts to fast-growing consumer use of weight-loss medication.
Nilesh Patel, chief revenue and customer officer at UnderwriteMe, said: “Protection insurance is often highly dependent upon medical underwriting, and after speaking to our insurer partners we collectively felt it was the right time to enhance the questions on the Protection Platform so that our insurer partners can continue to innovate and evolve their underwriting philosophies in this area on our Platform.
“Underwriting efficiency and accuracy are key for advisers and the Protection Platform continues to offer highly competitive STP (straight through processing) rates year-on-year. We are the first in the market with these underwriting changes, but we expect others to follow.”
Chris Reed, executive marketing director at Protect Line, added: “Insurance has a reputation for being slow to change, especially around underwriting.
“The world our customers live in is moving much faster – from the rapid rise of weight loss treatments to the way Gen Z think about health and lifestyle – and our questions haven’t always kept pace.
“UnderwriteMe’s enhancements are a clear sign that this is changing. By asking smarter, more nuanced questions about clinically supervised weight loss, they’re helping distributors like us secure fair, timely outcomes for customers who are simply trying to take control of their health.”
Reed added: “It’s also a great example of Consumer Duty in action. UnderwriteMe, their insurers and reinsurers have clearly worked hard behind the scenes to make this possible, and it shows that a once sleepy industry is now very much awake.”
