Posts filed under 'seizure disorder'
Still fresh in my mind is the story a client related to me about her experience of being declined for life insurance due to bipolar disorder. This was news to her since she didn’t have bipolar disorder.
In talking through the situation with her she did bring up the fact that she was treated for ongoing depression with the drug Lamictal. Lamictal has several uses, but because of the magic of television advertising, probably the best known is its’ use for bipolar disorder. It isn’t mentioned in the ads, but it is also commonly used for seizure disorders and, lo and behold, depression.
The decline from this company came without ever requesting medical records. There was a leap of assumption on the part of the underwriter that this client had put down depression, but the problem was really bipolar disorder and this leap of assumption was based solely on the medication. We shopped this case for her and detailed everything up front including what the other company had done and we were able to get her an approved policy at standard rates, a fair rate given her history of depression.
The knee jerk reaction from the majority of life insurance companies when it comes to depression, anxiety disorders and bipolar disorder is unfortunate. A large percentage of these folks are wearing the sign and taking the medication and leading normal lives. They hold down jobs, have healthy family and community lives, don’t sit around thinking about suicide, aren’t in and out of hospitals, comply with their treatment programs and in general are no more of a mortality risk than the average person that doesn’t have one of these issues or at least hasn’t been diagnosed with it yet.
A little friendly advice if you happen to be part of one of these groups and need life insurance. First, don’t go to your State Farm agent (or whoever handles your auto and homeowners). Those companies are licensed to sell life insurance but it is definitely not what they’re good at and the agent is licensed to sell the product, but they have no training in how to find you fair underwriting for your issue.
Second, don’t go to the big online insurance agencies. They are volume shops and writing a policy for someone with say, bipolar disorder, takes some time and doesn’t fit into their style of doing business. You are going to clog up their well oiled machine and while they might find you an approval, it’s not likely to be the best one out there for you.
Third, do find an independent agent who has a background and track record in dealing with your particular issue. You’ll know when you talk to them because we ask questions that will tip you off to the fact that we’ve been there before. We won’t just take down minimal information and run quotes for you. We’ll take a lot of information and then take the time to shop it for you.
Bottom line. Take heart! While the majority of life insurance companies are very conservative and would prefer to skirt around the whole issue of mood disorders, there are 15-20 companies out there that really have their head screwed on right and know how to fairly underwrite your case.
November 17th, 2008
What kind of an insane question is that? Let me try a few commonalities that probably come to mind if you have bipolar and and have applied for life insurance.
How about….all life insurance underwriters think bipolar disorder is a perfectly good reason to decline an application without studying medical records or determining the extent to which bipolar is actually affecting a person’s life. I think that most with bipolar would guess that is held in common. How about life insurance companies think the risk of suicide is too high so they don’t want to approve insurance based on that?
Depending on where someone starts out their life insurance adventure, if bipolar is in the picture no matter how well controlled, it can be a humiliating, degrading experience. I have seen clients declined for life insurance for taking the drug Lamictal. True enough it is used to treat bipolar disorder, but it is also used to treat depression and in some cases seizure disorders. Without ever determining the cause for the use of the drug this person was dished out a decline.
Even if it had been bipolar disorder, there was no effort on the part of the company to determine how mild or severe the disorder was and if it, in fact, had any real impact on the person’s day to day life. The truth is that I work with people all the time in positions of responsibility who have learned to do life just fine with bipolar in the background. The other truth is that we have found several life insurance companies who recognize that the mortality risk is just not that great in many of those instances.
Bottom line. What do they have in common? With the right agent it could be approvals and competitive rates. Time to rethink this whole thing.
October 15th, 2008
Whether it is epilepsy or another seizure disorder, the diagnosis is not necessarily a dead end for life insurance approvals. The key to approval and reasonable rates is control.
Seizure disorder is another one of those life insurance issues that evokes a knee jerk reaction from the majority of companies. Their guidelines just simply don’t have a place for anyone with a history, even a long past history, of seizures, other than their decline bucket. Diagnosed recently with epilepsy. Into the bucket you go. Nocturnal seizure disorder with no known seizures in 10 years. In the bucket. Diagnosed with epilepsy in your teens and no seizures since. Bucket time.
While this may seem unfair, it is certainly the right of an insurance company to define the risks they want to assume. The good news is that there are many companies that don’t share their definition or their philosophy. These are the companies that a good independent agent can track down for you.
As mentioned, control is the key issue. Once the correct treatment is found and seizures become rare or, as happens frequently, non existent, standard or better rates are often available. We’ve had clients who have been victims of the decline bucket with other companies who have been approved at preferred rates. Right agent. Right company. It shouldn’t logically make a difference, but it does.
Bottom line. Even if you’ve been declined for life insurance, don’t give up. Many people are concerned that a decline has a “black ball” effect for any future efforts. Nothing could be further from the truth. Turning a decline from the wrong company into an approval from the right company happens frequently.
July 12th, 2008
I have emailed an article I read today to all of the underwriters I work with. While many are on board with the idea that all bipolar is created equal and that all bipolar should be declined life insurance, there are still some hanging on to their worst fears like a security blanket.
This well written article engages in some real life myth busting of bipolar disorder, and probably the “eason it resonates so well with me is that the myths they bust are exactly the reasons that we are placing more and more fairly priced life insurance for the bipolar community every week.
The entire article presents a case for the fact that a compliant, stable bipolar patient is a worthy life insurance risk.
Bottom line. What I hear from the best life insurance underwriters is that someone with bipolar who is compliant with their treatment and, because of that, is stable in their work and family life, is a risk that makes sense for them. While many underwriters get hung up on bipolar being a “mental” issue, the others keep it in context. Compliance and control in diabetes equals fair life insurance rates. The same criteria is used to underwriter hypertension or seizure disorders. The same should hold true for bipolar.
January 22nd, 2008
Having done a rather narrowly focused, completely unscientific survey, I have determined that snakes should probably have some underwriting significance when it comes to life insurance.
Here are a few examples. A woman in her 60’s who was known to have heart disease, albeit well controlled, suffered a fatal heart attack upon discovering a snake in her house. This woman, who died in her 60’s, might well have lived another 20 years if it weren’t for the sudden appearance of an unwanted reptile.
Now I know there are people who aren’t afraid of snakes. I admit that I am one of them. I am interested and if they are the venomous variety, I am cautious, but not scared……..unless I step on one or see one suddenly move in very close proximity, with no warning. Then I do move quickly and my heart rate probably does increase. I may even suffer, depending on the situation, from a temporary bit of high blood pressure.
Then there is my wife. Again, not really scared of snakes. She just doesn’t like to be snuck up on. We’ve had something of an infestation of small bug eating snakes this year and she has begun to suffer some anxiety about going down the back steps to the chicken coop. The little guys like to sun themselves on the steps and sometimes you don’t see them until your foot is in mid air on the way to the next step down. That leaves her with a rather immediate choice to make. Jump to the side! Extend your stride to skip the step with the snake on it! Or, touch that step so fast and lightly that the snake doesn’t have time to wrap itself around your ankle and choke you to death! Believe me, if she could put it in reverse while going down steps, she would.
I suspect snakes can be tied to all sorts of other maladies (Yes, that was the end of my survey). I am thinking a person could suffer a stroke or a seizure if the right combination of medical conditions and snake sighting coincided.
Life insurance exams of the future might well replace the standard ekg with an ekg while watching a virtual clip from Snakes on a Plane. I mean if you are going to check out someone’s heart, let’s see how it handles SRF, “snake response factor”.
Just a thought for life insurance underwriters. They seem to be able to create mountains out of mole hills in so many other cases. Why not rate people based on their SRF.
May 30th, 2007
If you told a life insurance agent that you have a seizure disorder or epilepsy, and have they told you are uninsurable without asking more questions, take them off your Christmas card list. They are, not unlike most of their fellow agents, ignorant of the disorder and ignorant of how to successfully find you affordable life insurance.
A brief overview from the Epilepsy Foundation website, www.epilepsyfoundation.org, tells us “Epilepsy is generally not the kind of condition that gets worse with time. Most adults who have it can expect to live a normal life span.” A normal life span? Isn’t that what life insurance underwriters are looking for? The answer is yes. That is exactly what they are looking for. Absent other health issues, if most adults who hav it can expect to live a normal life span, then most adults who have it can expect to pay standard or better rates for their life insurance.
“Doctors treat epilepsy primarily with seizure-preventing medicines. Although seizure medications are not a cure, they control seizures in the majority of people with epilepsy.” I keep harping on what underwriters want to see when a person has a serious medical condition. It’s the same with diabetes, coronary artery disease or cholesterol. CONTROL AND COMPLIANCE!!! If you have epilepsy and are compliant with doctors orders, then you should have control. Good life insurance rates should follow control and compliance.
If you can find a good independent life insurance agent who doesn’t flinch when you mention epilepsy, but rather asks more questions like, What medication you take? When were you diagnosed? How frequent are your seizures and when was you most recent seizure? If they head down that road with you, you are in the right office or on the phone with a good agent.
Bottom line, look for an agent who isn’t scared of or too lazy to help you. Do a search with epilepsy and life insurance in the key words. Throw out all the big names at the top and look for a small agency that actually has information on their website about you and your condition and your chances at getting the life insurance your family needs. Don’t let anyone cut you short with the uninsurable answer.
April 3rd, 2007
