Life insurance is something everyone should considering having, even if thinking about the situation making life insurance useful is a painful one.
When the primary supporter of a family passes away, the loved ones who are left behind, more often than not, will face financial hardship, if the breadwinner did not have a life insurance policy.
A life insurance policy is a great way to ensure loved ones will be financially cared for when the policyholder is no longer available to provide.
When applying for a life insurance policy, the insurance company will often look at the applicant’s medical information in order to make a decision regarding coverage.
Those who have pre-existing medical conditions often believe it is impossible for them to get life insurance and, even if they can, it will be very costly. While it may seem impossible, Genesage is able to find life insurance policies with competitive prices for those individuals having pre-existing conditions.
Genesage has a lot of experience working with clients who have pre-existing medical conditions and can back this claim with a number of years of experience in the field.
Although we work with a number of different insurance agencies, we pride ourselves on being able to provide our clients with independent and quality advice that allows them to make the best decisions for their insurance.
Genesage has helped thousands of clients get affordable, competitive life insurance, even if they have one of a wide range of pre-existing conditions, including:
Genesage is able to arrange competitive coverage for those with many different illnesses.
What Makes Genesage Different?
Genesage prides itself on being an independent specialist in the area of life insurance for pre-existing conditions. We have worked to gain an unparalleled amount of knowledge in this field and use this experience to provide our clients with the best possible service and the best possible life insurance policies for their money. We have worked with a number of different insurance providers and are able to identify which groups are the most competitive when it comes to different medical conditions – this means our clients are having an experience that is tailored to their specific needs.
How Much Will Life Insurance for Pre-Existing Conditions Cost?
In speaking with one of our team members, clients will be able to identify:
- How Genesage can help them secure life insurance coverage, even with a pre-existing condition
- A relative figure as to how much a life insurance will cost, including coverage for their specific medical condition
Should one or more of the options presented to the client interest them, work for their lifestyle and budget, our dedicated team will help them through the process of applying for coverage through the appropriate insurance company based on their specific circumstances and medical condition.
How Life Insurance Providers Calculate Cost for Pre-Existing Medical Conditions
Every life insurance provider will have its own means of determining the cost of insurance coverage for those with pre-existing medical conditions but in most circumstances, the provider will hire a medical underwriter to help best evaluate the answers given by a policy seeker on his or her insurance application. This professional will then decide if there is enough information to provide a quote for a policy or if he or she needs to contact the applicant’s general practitioner or medical specialist for more information.
Once all the required information has been obtained, the underwriter will then decide how much the cost should be for the insurance policy the applicant is seeking.
Many factors are taken into consideration when making this decision, and some of these factors will include:
- How serious the applicant’s medical condition is
- How well the applicant manages his or her medical condition
- If there are any additional medical conditions or medical concerns present
- The amount of risk the insurance company will incur by insuring the applicant
- How many clients the insurance company currently has with the same medical condition as the applicant
- The amount of experience the insurance company has with the medical condition held by the applicant
A lot of the decision making process regarding the cost of life insurance has to do with the individual’s medical information, the current status of his or her condition, and the particular insurance provider’s situation at the given time.
With this in mind, it is easy to see why clients with pre-existing medical conditions often seek the help of companies like Genesage to better locate quality life insurance from an experienced insurance provider which is also providing a competitive price.
There have been plenty of examples of how some insurance providers can be competitive with one medical condition in one instance and not in another. For example, Insurance Provider A may have incredibly competitive rates for applicants with cancer during one month or a series of months but its prices change and become uncompetitive in future months. This is often due to the insurance company feeling it has expose itself to enough risk when it comes to applicants with cancer and adjusts premiums to limit future applicants and exposure.
Possible Outcomes of Life Insurance Applications
After the client has applied for a specific insurance product, the insurance company and its underwriter will do the necessary research in order to make a decision regarding coverage for the applicant. Once the process is complete, the insurance company will reply back to the applicant with its decision.
There are a number of possible decisions that could be presented to the applicant based on the insurance company’s findings during the research process.
Some of the possible decisions a client will see regarding his or her application include:
“Ordinary” Terms Offered – this means the insurance provider is offering the applicant an insurance policy with “standard terms” or the same terms it would offer to those applicants who do not have a pre-existing medical condition and are healthy.
Some of the reasons why this decision is presented include:
- Clients who have extremely well controlled diabetes
- Clients who have well controlled high blood pressure
“Loaded” Premiums Offered – this means the insurance provider is willing to cover the applicant, but will be charging him or her a higher premium in order to cover the increased risk posed of making a claim due to a medical condition. The “load” that is added to the premium will range from as little as 50 percent to as much as 1,000 percent.
Some of the situations where this decision is presented include:
- Life insurance with a history of cancer
- Life insurance after a heart attack
- Life insurance with any of the below listed medical conditions
- Multiple sclerosis
- Diabetes
- Crohn’s disease
Postponed Coverage – this means after reviewing the individual’s application, the company is not willing to offer insurance coverage to the applicant at this time, but may be willing to offer him or her coverage sometime in the future.
Some of the situations where postponed decisions occur include:
- Applicants waiting for an operation or medical procedure
- Applicants waiting for a new/updated diagnosis
- Applicants that are undergoing cancer treatments
Declined Coverage – this means based on the individual’s application, the insurance provider is not willing to offer him or her life insurance coverage. This most often happens when the risk to the insurance company is too great.
Some reasons why an insurance provider would decline to cover an applicant include:
- Applicants with terminal illnesses
- Poorly controlled diabetes with additional medical complications
How Different Conditions Will Affect Life Insurance Coverage
In the eyes of insurance providers, different medical conditions will fall into different categories, and these categories will help to dictate its decision making when it comes to approving a life insurance application for someone with a pre-existing medical condition. Instead of putting medical conditions into “buckets,” the team at Genesage takes the time to evaluate each client’s situation individually in order to help him or her find the best possible life insurance coverage at a competitive price.
Here we will outline how a range of different medical conditions are categorized and how these conditions could affect the decision made by the insurance provider about coverage for an applicant:
Conditions that are Accepted at “Ordinary Rates” or with Little “Loading”
- Arthritis
- Allergies (Exception: Severe Allergies)
- Blindness
- Bronchitis
- Glaucoma
- Headaches (Without Underlying Causes or Additional Medical Testing)
- Hernias
- High Blood Pressure (Controlled and Stable with Medication)
- Hypertension
- High Cholesterol
- Hysterectomy (Depending on Reason)
- Indigestion
- Mild Asthma (Controlled with Inhalers, Not Hospital Treatments)
- Overweight (Depending on Insurance Provider’s Acceptable Height/Weight Ratio)
- Skin Disorders
- Well Controlled Diabetes (Condition Present for a Number of Years, Under Good Control with HBA1c Figure of Under 7)
Conditions Subject to Loading Premiums
- Anemia
- Angina (Depending on Level of Control)
- Ankylosing Spondylitis
- Anxiety
- Atrial Fibrillation
- Blood Disorders
- Brain Damage (Wide Range of Loading – Contact Genesage for More Information)
- Brain Hemorrhage
- Breast Problems (Cancer Coverage May Be Available When in Remission After Qualifying Period)
- Brittle Bone Disease
- Cancer (Available for Most Cancer Patients in Remission After Qualifying Period)
- Cerebral Palsy
- Colitis
- Coronary
- Crohn’s Disease (Ordinary Rates or Low Loading for Those in Remission)
- Depression (Ordinary Rates May Be Available for Mild Depression)
- Diabetes (Typical Diabetics May Secure Policy with Moderate Loading)
- Eating Disorders
- Epilepsy
- Family History
- Fibroids
- Hemochromatosis
- Hemophilia
- Heart Attacks (Dependent on Different Factors)
- Heart Disease
- Heart Murmurs
- Hepatitis
- HIV
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome
- Kidney Disease
- Kidney transplant
- Liver Disease
- Lupus
- ME
- Mental Illness
- MS
- Multiple Sclerosis – (Dependent on Type and Severity)
- Myocardial Infarction
- Obesity (Available if General Health is Well)
- Pancreatitis
- Parkinson’s Disease
- Sickle Cell
- Stroke
- TIA’s
- Tumors (See Information Regarding Cancer)
- Ulcerative Colitis (See Information on Crohn’s Disease)
- Urinary Tracy Disorders
- Vein Artery Problems
Conditions Subject to Postponed Coverage
- Alcohol Abuse (Dependent on Timeline and Severity)
- Cancer (Postponed While Applicant in Remission Period – Length of Postponement Varies)
- Coronary
- Heart Attacks (If Attack Was Suffered in Last 12 Months)
- Kidney Disease
- Kidney Transplant (May Be Available After Operation Recovery Period)
Conditions Subject to Declined Coverage
- Terminal Conditions
- Uncontrolled Conditions
- Multi Condition Situations (Example: Obesity with Diabetes, Heart Conditions)
It is important to note the information provided here is a simply a guide to understanding how the different medical conditions are categorized (in a general sense) by insurance providers and how these different medical conditions will affect an individual’s life insurance application.
In order to best identify the circumstances surrounding an individual’s situation and how much a particular insurance product will cost, it is best to contact Genesage directly for an individual evaluation.