Archive for July 16th, 2007
The average person who purports to be a life insurance agent will a rather adverse reaction if you tell them you want life insurance and openly admit that you have heart disease. It doesn’t matter if you have just had minor blockage that was treated medically, an angioplasty or heart bypass, or have suffered a heart attack, 98% of life insurance agents will either tell you your situation is not insurable or will tell you they will get back to you, and never do.
And, they will take one of these courses of action without gathering any further information. If you tell an agent that you have had some heart issue and they don’t ask a lot more questions, find another agent. There are four primary things underwriters look at when analyzing a cardiac case. Your agent should ask about these things, and you should know the answers.
1. Date of onset or diagnosis! Heart disease is a more natural occurrence the older you are. If you started having heart issues in your 30’s or 40’s, it doesn’t put you out of the running for decent rates, but you probably should be considering getting a very good independent agent working for you. Know your family history!
2. How often do you see your cardiologist and when did you last have an imaged stress test? Regular visits to the heart doc are a good idea. If something went wrong before, monitoring yourself for any repeat of that is a good idea. An imaged stress test is the only non invasive way of determining if the work that was done is still holding up and if any other complications are showing up. Most cardiologists will just do it as a matter of good practice. If you have a cardiologist that doesn’t, I would get a second opinion. Most underwriters will want to know that you have had a stress test within 1-2 years prior to applying for insurance and absolutely one that post dates any cardiac event.
3. Know what your left ventricular ejection fraction is. When you have a stress test they will measure your LVEF. This is a measure of how efficiently your heart is pumping blood. The cutoff for most companies for a decline would be an ejection fraction of less than 50%. An ejection fraction over 60% is great news post cardiac event.
4. Other risk factors are changed or kept in check. Generally a cardiac event will trigger life style changes. Underwriters like to know that you are committed to the heart they are insuring. So, if you smoke you should have quit. If you are obese, you should be dieting and exercising. If your blood pressure or cholesterol are not where they should be, you should be following doctor’s orders to get them down.
Bottom line, know your disease, know that your agent knows your disease and be compliant with your doctor’s recommendations and if you don’t feel they are agressive enough, get a second opinion.
July 16th, 2007
The very thought of trying to find life insurance for someone who has had prostate cancer would send 98% of life insurance agents screaming into the dark. Most would just tell you, without asking any questions, that you are uninsurable.
About 80% of prostate cancer cases are not only insurable, but insurable at rates that someone with no cancer history would be happy with. If you want to win the prize there are three things that your agent should ask for and you need to be able to provide. If the agent doesn’t ask for these things, get another agent.
1. You need to know what the doctor found when you were diagnosed! Their first indication was probably an elevated PSA ( prostate specific antigen). You need to know what that was at the time of diagnosis. From there they would have done a biopsy. From the biopsy they would have determined a stage and grade of the cancer. The stage would be somewhere between A-D. It could be like A2. The grade, also known as the Gleason score would be two numbers added together, such as Gleason 3+3=6. Keep a copy of your pathology report. These numbers become fuzzy with age, but will mean just as much to an underwriter 5 or 10 years down the road as they do 1 year after the cancer has been stopped.
2. Know when your treatment was completed and what your current PSA is. Most companies will want you to be some period of time post treatment, at least six months to a year, and they will want to see that your treatment has achieved the optimal result. As an example, if your prostate was removed, a radical prostatectomy, your PSA should be a statistical 0. If your treatment was by radioactive seed implant, a PSA of up to .5 could be the result an underwriter wants to see.
Bottom lines. If your agent doesn’t ask questions, get an independent agent who does. If you don’t know the information I just reviewed, find it out and get a copy of your pathology report while you researching. Don’t ever let an agent tell you your situation is uninsurable.
July 16th, 2007
If you have type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes and have shopped for life insurance, you more than likely ran into a few stumbling blocks, a few roadblocks and some outright dead ends. The real problem is that you probably ran into an agent who didn’t understand what to ask and where to go with that information.
Life insurance underwriters look for 3 primary things when evaluating life insurance in relation to diabetes. The more accurate the information you can provide, the more likely that you will get the quotes and approval that you want.
1. Know the status of your diabetes! Know the labwork numbers. Everyone can remember their last glucose reading from their own test. If you want to seriously shop for good rates on your life insurance you need to know your most recent hbA1c. Underwriters aren’t impressed if your last glucose reading was 105. They are impressed if your hbA1c is 5.8. Why? The A1c averages your glucose levels over a 3 months period. It knows when you’ve been good and when you haven’t. A 5.8 would indicate that you are in fact keeping your glucose in a normal range. Each time you get labs done, get a copy. If you’re serious about your disease, you need to know what’ s on your labs.
2. Know your medications and be compliant with your doctor’s recommendation for your treatment! If the doctor says you need to take a 500 mg tablet twice a day, do exactly that. Don’t take the one in the morning and skip the one in the evening because you feel pretty good. Underwriters want to see compliance and control and you don’t get one without the other.
3. Know, monitor and remember the status of other risk factors. If you’ve studied diabetes you know that one of the concerns for underwriters is the potential complications such as heart disease, neuropathy and retinopathy. Because of this, it is critical that you not only keep your glucose in check, but also your blood pressure and your weight. Obesity and hypertension are not your friends in your quest for good health and they are not going to win points with underwriters.
In summary, control, compliance and risk factors. Do the right things to stay healthy and you’re doing what it takes to get competitive life insurance rates.
July 16th, 2007
