Archive for July 21st, 2008
Sounds like one of those reward programs that are promised with credit cards! “Earn extra life insurance miles!” I know I have claimed in previous posts that my health, as least mental health, benefits from an occasional escape to someplace other than my office. So, is there something to it?
The list of stress related health issues might as well start with a full medical dictionary and tell you what to remove from the list. The truth is that most health issues or the severity of those issues can be traced back to stress.
And what better way to unload stress than to leave it all behind. I mean really get away and don’t drag any of it with you.
I tried a working vacation a year or so ago. I decided that we really needed to get away but, well, it was a busy time with my business and I was working overtime on blogging, so I would just take the lap top and my cell phone…….and, that was not what the doctor ordered!
I am blessed with an office manager who encourages me not to call in, not to check my email. She is quite capable and handles things very well in my absence. She is my permission slip. There truly isn’t any reason for me to drag work or even thoughts of work along with me. I have probably taken five vacations since she came to work with me. Each time I leave I tell her it is OK to call if she has a question. She never has.
My wife and I decided a few years back that a 7 day vacation wasn’t really long enough. If you figure two days travel, that leaves you 5. In my experience it takes 3 days to unwind and feel like you’re on vacation. With a 7 day vacation that means that about the time you are unwound, you are starting to plan to pack to come home. My recommendation, if you can do it, is 9-10 days. Long enough to relax and short enough that you won’t forget to come back.
Bottom line. Just my thoughts on another way to live longer, enjoy it more and pay less for your life insurance because you are stress free.
July 21st, 2008
We’ve blogged long and hard for years about the obesity epidemic in our country and the high cost the participants are paying in added health problems, shorter life spans and higher life insurance premiums. So, not that we had anything to do with it, but hats off to those New York restaurants that are now posting calories along with price on their menus.
Our country has worked long and hard figuring out how to market fat and calories under cute names and making quick and easy a dietary choice that seems to have sucked the common sense out of our nation’s health consciousness. That is not to say that there weren’t poor choices to be made 40 or 50 years ago, but with today’s marketing machines in full gear, fit as a fiddle may have to be updated to a cello.
So what’s the big deal about obesity? Clearly, with a few exceptions, it’s a lifestyle choice that’s been made and you make your bed and lie in it, right? If obesity was the end result, from a life insurance perspective it wouldn’t be such a tough hit. Weight alone will keep you away from the best rates, but it still leaves you affordably insurable.
The problem is that the weight, the obesity, is the start of an almost certain downhill health slide and studies seem to indicate that unchecked obesity doesn’t leave you in a place where you wonder if you’ll have health problems, but rather how bad will they be.
Bottom line. If you’re tipping the scales in the wrong direction, you may want to consider purchasing adequate life insurance before the health problems start happening. Once you come face to face with diabetes, heart disease or cancer, the task becomes much harder.
July 21st, 2008
One of the challenges we face each week is finding affordable life insurance for people who have suffered a heart attack, or have undergone angioplasty or heart bypass surgery after having chest discomfort due to blocked arteries. The good news! The folks we are helping are alive and with the often hidden heart problem revealed, they have a greater chance of avoiding having a major cardiac event in the future that could end their lives. They have a new lease on life.
Heart attack survival has been on the rise for several years due primarily to advances in rapid response treatment and more aggressive treatment to open blocked arteries. The playbook has been rewritten in the past decade concerning how emergency response crews and emergency room staff react to heart attacks with more emphasis being put on rapid use of clot busting drugs and quicker intervention through angioplasty.
Another boon to survival rates has been the acknowledgment that post cardiac event exercise plays a huge role in how quickly a patient recovers and their chances of not having a recurrence.
From a life insurance perspective there are several points for optimism. First and foremost, you survived. Whether that is due to your event being a mild one or due to more advanced and aggressive treatment, the result is the same. Second, the damage your heart incurred was likely less than it would have been in the past and the amount of damage to heart muscle is a carefully viewed measure in underwriting. Third, the long term chances of not having a recurrence have improved due to recommended lifestyle changes and newer cholesterol lowering drugs so another underwriting challenge, avoiding chronic coronary artery disease (CAD), is avoided.
How long does it take to get good offers after a cardiac event? While there are exceptions, generally you will need to be one year out from the event and you will need to have completed an imaged stress test, either an echocardiogram or a thallium stress test.
Bottom line. While you will likely never see preferred plus rates again, there is every reason to believe that standard to slightly substandard rates will be available. In layman’s terms, you should be able to obtain affordable life insurance.
July 21st, 2008
