A Real Live Lipid Farm. Can It Be Insured?

I remember a few years ago when my wife was running scared because her cholesterol on the results from our community health fair were over 200, just barely. Her HDL was 60. She might die from worrying, but her arteries weren’t plugging.

Late last week I had a call from a potential life insurance client who said he had been rated by Transamerica because his triglycerides were 360 something and his cholesterol ratio was 8. I’ve certainly heard worse stories so I asked him to get me the rest of the lipid panel numbers and I would shop it. He was a little embarrassed when he called back. He got the actual labs and his triglycerides tipped the scale at 860+, his total cholesterol at 360+ and his cholesterol ratio was over 9. It had all the appearance of someone who had taken multiple 50% fat cheeseburgers intravenously an hour before the exam.

I told him I would shop it but really had no idea where we would come out. I guessed that we could at least put something in place at a lower cost than Trans while he got his lipid closet in order, but I told him with those kind of heart stopping results he should put the Trans policy in force on a monthly basis until we found something less expensive. I have all the quotes in now and we will definitely be able to replace Transamerica with a lower price policy and keep that in place until he gets all his lipids back in the corral. It may take a year, maybe two, but we should be able to get him back to preferred rates in the near future.

I know I’ve gone off on the average American guy before and this guy is definitely one of them. The only way your artery blocking lipid panel can get that far out of whack is if you never have it checked. He’s not out of the norm at all on that count. Most guys consider an annual physical or getting labs from a health fair something that old guys do, but with our great American diet and eating habits, lipids can go south on young people at any time. If you’re 40 and haven’t had a physical with labs you are already behind the health knowledge curve. You feel good but that’s the only thing you really know. You may not even feel as good, with as much energy, as you did five years ago but you just figure that’s part of turning 40.

If you’re fit, eating right and certified healthy by a full physical, there isn’t any reason at 40 you shouldn’t feel like 20. But, if you’re like the person described above you really have to be feeling it. Your lipid bucket has been turned upside down and that makes the rest of your body work overtime.

Bottom line. My guy above already has an appointment with his doctor to start work on the problem so we can get him insurance now and cheaper insurance a year or two down the road. Fortunately for him his wife bugged him about getting life insurance or he might well have died without it. If you are lipid challenged or have just discovered that your lipid panel is out of whack, know that different life insurance companies treat that differently. If you have any questions or need some help finding better rates, email or call me directly. Let’s talk.