Archive for December 8th, 2007
It never ceases to amaze me that men, men who are husbands, fathers or businessmen, seem to think that life insurance is a waste of money. What ever happened to the idea that responsbility comes with marriage, parenthood and business ownership?
I try to block these things out, but here are just a few of the comments and scenarios I run into, far too frequently, that just leave me shaking my head.
1. A man who smokes who decides to blow off purchasing life insurance because, as a smoker, it costs too much.
2. A man who thinks it is extravegant to have $250,000 worth of life insurance when he is married with 5 dependent children.
3. A man who doesn’t see the logic of carrying life insurance after the children are grown because his wife can always remarry. (Yes, I really hear these things)
4. A man who want to purchase $100,000 of life insurance to make sure his wife is taken care of, when his annual income is $175,000.
5. The unfortunately not rare situation where a man simply says it doesn’t matter because he’ll be dead.
6. The man who buys a 10 year term for $17 a month instead of a 20 year term for $24 a month when he has a 3 year old child.
7. The man who decides not to buy anything because he doesn’t qualify for the best rates.
I don’t know much about left brain and right brain, but there are so many men out there that appear to be trying to get by with no brains.
Bottom line. If you are responsible for the health and welfare of someone else, buy life insurance and act responsible.
December 8th, 2007
We have discussed on numerous occasions the rapid increase of obesity in teenagers and the impact that has had on the increase of teenage and young adult type 2 diabetes. It is not a pretty picture that is being painted.
Now, the New England Journal of Medicine, has presented a study that paints a grim picture of early onset coronary artery disease (CAD), due to the high rate of teenage obesity carrying over into young adulthood.
What they found runs a little bit counter to a “good news” post within the past week where I reported that obesity seems to be leveling off, and with women even seems to have dropped some in the past few years. That good news was based on the adults of today.
If you extrapolate the rate of teen obesity today into adult obesity 20 years from now, it becomes obvious that unless something drastic happens, the leveling off we are experiencing now will disappear and obesity rates in adults will be substantially higher than they’ve over been.
So, let’s not kid ourselves. There is a very bad scenario starting to build and unless something is done, we will have dramatic increases of diabetes, cancer and heart disease in young adults, leading to mortality experiences that we haven’t seen in a very long time.
It won’t be easy to turn that trend around, but a start in the right direction may not be as tough as we think. A UCLA study recently found that, DUH, if you offer more fruits and vegetables in school, kids eat more fruits and vegetables. I have seen the results of several studies that show that kids will eat what they are offered at school, and that the saying “garbage in, garbage out” is right on the money in this case. Feed them junk and they will gain weight. Feed them healthy alternatives and they won’t.
Bottom line. Obesity doesn’t help your health or your life insurance rates as an adult. If you come into adulthood with a trend toward poor health already established, life insurance is going to be very difficult to get at all, let alone at good prices. But that is secondary to the impact it will have on your life and longevity.
December 8th, 2007
Whether you have type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes, there is a piece of information you should already know that is crucial in finding the best life insurance rates. If you do not know what your hbA1c, your hemoglobin A1c is, call your doctor and get it.
While you have that doctor on the phone, ask them if there is any other information they have been withholding that is critical to you being a well informed diabetes patient.
For years now we have specialized in helping people with diabetes find affordable life insurance. The first question a life insurance underwriter wants answered is how well your glucose is controlled. The answer to that comes from the labs the doctor does each time they see you and the result they look to is the hbA1c.
This is the same lab result your doctor looks at to determine if your medication levels need to be adjusted. This is information they should discuss with you when you are first diagnosed and each time they do labs. I have never been able to determine what they gain by keeping you in the dark, but their lack of commitment to your knowledge is a disgrace.
Bottom line. My recommendation would be that you get a copy of every set of labs available since you were diagnosed with diabetes. I know that is overwhelming if you were diagnosed 20 years ago, but you should strive to have a file of the last 3 to 5 years. Take some time to study it. Highlight your A1c. Graph it. Know it. Understand that this is a measure of how well you are doing at controlling a disease that left uncontrolled, can lead to terrible consequences. Don’t embarrass yourself by not knowing the simplest of facts about your medical condition.
December 8th, 2007
