Karen Stevens said too many consumers were not aware of the risks of changing to a new health insurance provider.

“The focus needs to be on the fact that if they decide to change health insurers, they most likely will not be covered for any conditions that they’ve had since they took out the first policy. If they fail to disclose, they will more than likely have issues at a later date.”

She said consumers could be disappointed if they found the policy they had had for 20 years would have covered them for an operation that their new one won’t.

“It’s not a case of stopping them getting a new policy but they need to be aware. You might get a cheaper premium but you may not get the same cover.”

She said advisers in the ISO scheme had it made clear to them that they needed to make sure customers understood.

“Most are doing a really good job most of the time and push the message to customers. The difficult for advisers is they’re the front line of blame when something goes wrong. The adviser is the one the customer turns to and says ‘you didn’t tell me this’.”

Stevens suggested people attach their medical notes to their application for a new health insurance policy.

“An adviser can help by saying ‘this is really important, if you don’t do this correctly the insurer can avoid the whole policy’.”