What happened to me? It used to be that if I went for a half a dozen blog posts without railing on the underwriting and personal health importance of control of your impairment through compliance with your treatment and commitment to change of habits if needed, I was slacking. I’m thinking it may well have been more than a year since I’ve driven these points home which means that it is me, not you, that is slacking in my commitment to getting that word out, slacking in letting you know that with compliance and control life insurance rates can be a fraction of what they are if you simply plod along with a problem.

There is no better classic example of these principles than with sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is generally classified as mild, moderate of severe. Simply put uncontrolled sleep apnea is asking for high blood pressure problems, which is asking for coronary issues, which from a life insurance standpoint is making a mountain out of a health ant hill and has to be met with higher rates. It is the oxygen deprivation of sleep apnea that would drive up blood pressure as your heart works harder during the night to keep the blood oxygenated. When your system struggles, unlike daytime when you would certainly notice if you forgot to breathe, something has to give simply because our bodies, our hearts and lungs, aren’t made to go without oxygen so we just breathe.

At night sleep apnea can throw a road block in that process, but wait, what am I telling you? I don’t have sleep apnea and I certainly don’t know more about it than someone reading this post, but I do know how life insurance underwriters view the subject and can address what good compliance and control can save you in life insurance premium versus poor or not compliance and control. In the absence of compliance with your doctor and control of your apnea, which in so many cases now is actually documented by the cpap you are using, you can be rated (pay a higher price) or even declined for life insurance if it’s determined that you are driving yourself right into a case of coronary artery disease. What that looks like for a 50 year old guy needing $500k of 20 year term life insurance with well controlled sleep apnea is a price of $900.00 a year versus poorly controlled and a price of $1709.00 a year or higher or, if bad enough, declined for coverage until it is well controlled. Going back to the comment in the second paragraph (mild, moderate, severe sleep apnea) know that it really doesn’t matter which way your apnea is characterized with life insurance, as long as it is well controlled.

Bottom line. If money and health are just not concerns for you, then ignore the above. If you want life insurance to protect your family’s future and you want to be healthy to enjoy your life with them, pull your head out and start taking breathing seriously. If you have questions or would like to know how your snoring translates into life insurance rates, call or email me directly. My name is Ed Hinerman. Let’s talk.