Breast Cancer and Life Insurance! More Home Runs to Come!

Everyone seems to know someone who has been affected by breast cancer. While still a horrifying diagnosis, breast cancer is eminently more curable than 30 years ago and as early diagnosis and treatment success increases, affordable life insurance is becoming more and more available.

Life insurance seems to evolve with diseases. Just 30-40 years ago it seemed we usually found out someone had cancer at the same time we found out how many months, or weeks, they had to live. Back then a history of cancer, if it was survived, was generally an automatic decline if a person wanted to purchase life insurance. As people have become more health conscious and detection testing has become more sophisticated, cancer is now more often detected when there is still time to do something about it. Now insurance companies are allowing cancer history and good rates to be uttered in the same sentence.

There are still criteria to get to those good rates. The severity (stage and grade) of the cancer is one. The more invasive and fast spreading a cancer is, the more cautious an underwriter will be even when a doctor has dared to utter the word “cured”. Often there are post treatment tests that will help decide at what level a person is insurable. A good example of this would be the PSA test after treatment of prostate cancer.

The good news. No, the great news is that cancer is no longer the killer it used to be and life insurance companies recognize that. Cancer survival is its’ own reward. Being able to buy life insurance just like everyone else is just frosting on the cake.

This post is somewhat dated. Life insurance underwriting is changing and evolving continually. For more updated information check out some of the key word links. If you have a specific question or topic you need information for do a search. If you don’t find the answers you need contact me and we’ll make sure you get the information that is important to you.