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Doctors and nurses are postponing coronavirus tests over fears they could be left without insurance for months if they come back positive.
Healthcare workers have also delayed tests until after mortgage deals have completed, owing to concerns that income protection applications could be rejected.
Telegraph Money has seen an unofficial memo circulating among medical staff, which warns that insurers have declined or deferred applications for income protection, life insurance and critical illness policies after applicants have tested positive for coronavirus.
The British Medical Association has written to the Association of British Insurers to ask that frontline workers are not left without cover.
When policies are deferred, it can leave doctors and nurses without crucial cover for as long as three months.
Mortgages can be approved without income protection and critical illness cover being in place. However, people working in such high-risk sectors may not be comfortable taking out a loan without protection.
Income protection plans pay out in the event that the policyholder can no longer work as normal while critical illness cover offers a one-off payment in the event of a serious illness occurring.
Life insurance offers a lump sum or regular payments to the customer’s dependants, should they die during the term of the policy.
The BMA said staff who took antigen tests should not be disadvantaged against those who showed symptoms but had not been tested.
Some insurers fail to differentiate between antigen and antibody tests, the latter of which determines whether someone has had the virus in the past. This may also result in an application being deferred.
A spokesman for the medical trade body said: “The BMA believes that it is essential that staff with symptoms are able to seek an antigen swab test and that this should not result in any disadvantage compared to someone who has had symptoms of Covid but not undergone a test.”
The BMA added: “Healthcare staff should not face additional stress at this time; they should be treated fairly and given clear and supportive information about mortgages and insurance.”
The ABI said it did not want to discourage anyone from taking a coronavirus test. It said insurers considered an applicant’s health, the severity of symptoms and whether they had fully recovered and were back at work.
A spokesman said: “We do not want to discourage anyone from taking a test and have written to the BMA to reassure them that doctors and healthcare workers will be treated the same as other workers when applying for life insurance or income protection.”
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