Ankylosing spondylitis life insurance
Whether you call it ankylosing spondylitis, AS or axial spondyloarthritis, you probably fought long enough to get the diagnosis without having to fight for life insurance too. Here's the part almost nobody tells you: well-controlled AS is one of the most insurable inflammatory conditions there is, and close to standard terms are genuinely achievable for many people with the right insurer.
You waited years to be taken seriously. Insurance shouldn't repeat that.
Most people with axial SpA waited a long time for answers while being told it was just back pain. So it's natural to assume insurers will be another system that doesn't listen. The reality is better than you'd expect: insurers assess AS on your disease activity, your mobility, your treatment and your general health, and modern biologic treatment has transformed how controlled AS reads on an application.
What insurers look at with ankylosing spondylitis
- When you were diagnosed and how your condition has progressed
- Current disease activity and flare pattern
- Your mobility and how the condition affects daily life and work
- Your treatment: anti-inflammatories only suggests milder disease; biologics signal a condition that needed serious treatment and is being actively managed, which the right insurers do not hold against you
- Any spinal changes or fusion, which insurers ask about where present
- Related conditions such as eye inflammation (uveitis), psoriasis or bowel conditions
- Smoking, which insurers know speeds up AS specifically, so being a non-smoker helps more than usual
How it works
A quick, private health check online. A call with a specialist adviser. Discreet enquiries with the right insurers before anything formal goes on your record. Then we handle the paperwork and keep you updated. Straightforward cases can often proceed without a GP report.
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Written and reviewed by
Andy Stevens CMap
Co-Founder and Protection Specialist
Andy has spent more than thirty years placing life insurance for people insurers find difficult, including inflammatory arthritis, and he still speaks to clients himself. He co-founded Arthritis Life so that people living with arthritis get an adviser who understands modern rheumatology rather than a form that treats every type the same.
- Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning (CII)
- Member of the Chartered Insurance Institute
- Over 30 years in impaired risk life insurance
Last reviewed . This page is general information about insurance, not medical advice or a personal recommendation. More about us.
Frequently asked questions
Living with a different condition? Read about rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, osteoarthritis, gout or fibromyalgia.
You may also want to read about declined life insurance with arthritis, critical illness cover with arthritis or income protection with arthritis.