Since it is breast cancer awareness month and since breast cancer and life insurance is an issue that is visited frequently on our website, I thought I would just recap some of the things we know about it and how life insurance underwriters view it.
- Breast cancer is the 2nd most common cancer among women. The only more common cancer is skin cancer.
- About 1 in 8 women will get breast cancer during their lifetime.
- About 240,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year in the US.
- About 40,000 will die from the disease this year.
- These numbers are significantly better than in the 80’s and 90’s primarily due to better education, detection and treatment.
There is good news when it comes to breast cancer. There is very real hope that the downward trend in new cases and deaths will continue, maybe even more dramatically.
Life insurance underwriting has been following these trends and companies are becoming more aggressive about offering better rates sooner than at any point in the past. About 1/4 of the 240,000 new cases this year were in situ tumors. With treatment today, many of those women can get life insurance at better than standard rates within a year, sometimes less, of completing treatment.
Bottom line. All of the efforts to educate women on the issue of breast cancer are paying off. It is this type of awareness that saves lives and lower insurance rates.
October 9th, 2007
There is a very real problem when it comes to the estates of “non-traditional” couples. Laws are written and uphold the estate laws for traditional married couples, but those laws don’t offer the same estate protection for other couples. Without getting into the fray about who’s right and who’s wrong, let me just say that the great equalizer for non traditional couples is life insurance.
Stephan Leimberg rights a monthly article called “Leimberg’s Think About It”. You can purchase his monthly publication at www.leimberg.com. In the September article he does an indepth look at estates and how they are viewed by law when it involves non traditional couples.
Quoting a Census Bureau report he states findings “that approximately 9% of coupled households are non traditional…living in a marriage like relationship.”
Let me just cut to the chase on this subject. There is NOT equality between married and non-married couples when it comes to passing on property and estate value, and in all likelihood there won’t be for some time.
The one thing you can do to make sure you take care of your significant other is through life insurance. The federal government doesn’t touch life insurance proceeds.
Bottom line. While there may be a fight to be fought over whether the law is right or wrong, do the right thing and protect your interests with life insurance.
October 9th, 2007
After episode 3’s relatively low weight loss, except for the red team, weight starting falliing off again. Again, my goal with this blog is not to talk about the drama of the game, but rather the health and life insurance aspects of weight loss. With each weigh in I recompute life insurance quotes based on the new weights.
It is important to note that a person can have a fairly substantial weight loss and not gain any ground on insurance rates. This is because of the spread between rate classes according to the build charts. That happened to several this week. I suspect that next week they will jump to a better rate class as several were very close.
My disclaimer. There is an assumption as I provide quotes that there are no underlying health issues. Because insurance companies reward long term weight loss, there will be an assumption that the weight loss has been kept off for more than a year. All life insurance quotes are for $250,000 of 20 year term insurance. I will be using the company that will make the best offer at any given height and weight. All quotes will be yearly premiums.
Blue team
Kae – 27, 5’2, Start 225#, now 191 - Start quote $310.00, still $225.00
Neil – 25, 6’2, Start 421#, now 375 - Start quote $560.00, still $441.00
Nicole, 26, 5’6, Start 279#, now 258 - Start quote $344.00, still $310.00
Ryan, 29, 5’10, Start 374#, now 341 - Start quote $610.00, still $544.00
Red Team
Amy, 28, 5’6, Start 297#, now 278 - Start quote $413.00, still $413.00
Bryan, 29, 6’0, Start 346#, now 319 - Start quote $544.00, still $430.00
David, 31, 6’0, Start 368#, now 337 - Start quote $622.00, still $580.00
Phil, 27, 6’5, Start 403#, now 358 - Start quote $513.00, now $318.00
Black Team
Bill, 40, 5’8, Start 334#, now 285 - Start quote $912.00, now $675.00
Hollie, 28, 5’7, Start 255#, now 236 - Quote $319.00, still $225.00
Isabeau, 21, 5’8, Start 298#, now 272 - Start quote $344.00, now $300.00
Jez, 24, 5’8, Start 345#, now 308 - Start quote $570.00, now $448.00
Jim, 40, 5’7, Start 361#, now 314 - Start quote $1148.00, now $911.00
Julie, 34, 5’2, Start 218#, now 205 - Start quote $388.00, now $250.00
I mentioned a few posts ago that I had an email from the show’s medical director sharing my frustration that this cash cow of a show can’t spare a few minutes each episode to discuss the collateral health issues of obesity. Dr Kern is doing the job she is directed to do, but clearly not the job she would like to be doing from an education standpoint.
Bottom line. Dropping those pounds makes a difference in life insurance rates, but more importantly, with each weight loss, comes a better chance at living a longer, healthier life.
October 9th, 2007
