As the word sneaks out a little further each day, I have more and more people contacting me and asking if it’s true. Can they get life insurance at affordable rates even though they have bipolar disorder? I wish I could claim that the answer is unequivocally yes, but that isn’t true for any portion of the population.
All people have to meet criteria. If you are in the disgustingly healthy group then you to have meet all of the disgustingly healthy criteria to get the best rates. If you have diabetes you have to show that you are compliant with your treatment and have good control of the disease. If you have high blood pressure you have to show that you are compliant with your treatment and that it is well controlled.
While there are a few more disclaimers with bipolar, it is underwritten essentially the same as other health issues with about 2% of the life insurance companies. Assume going in that 98% of life insurance companies will run screaming DECLINEEEEE into the dark if you mention bipolar. The 2% that are left won’t insure you if you have high blood pressure that is out of control, diabetes that is out of control or bipolar that is out of control.
I would say something like, “At the risk of being redundant”, but the truth is I rather thrive on redundancy. I even invented my own word, redundiferous, to describe how exponentially redundant I can be. Lost my train of thought there……
The criteria for getting good rates if you have bipolar disorder are as follows. 1. No hospitalization for bipolar in the last 10 years unless it was a short stay to determine the diagnosis. 2. No suicide attempts ever. 3. You can’t be on disability for bipolar (if it disables you it hardly meets the qualification of being controlled) 4. Medical records would need to show that you are compliant with your treatment and 5. You need to be able to present a stable family and job life.
You can present an A+ report card on all of those items to 98% of the companies out there and they will decline you. It takes an independent agent with knowledge of bipolar disorder and where to find the hidden 2% in order to turn that report card into an approved life insurance policy.
Bottom line. There really is nothing different with underwriting bipolar versus heart disease or epilepsy, diabetes or hypertension. Out of control doesn’t get it. In control does.
My 20 years of experience give me the knowledge and leverage to find reasonably-priced life insurance for people who have been declined or are paying more than they need to.
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