It is a fairly common occurrence to have a life insurance application postponed when the proposed insured has a scheduled hospital procedure. Clients often question why the companies are so cautious when often times the procedures are fairly simple outpatient events.
While there is always a very small chance of complications with anesthesia, the larger concern is with infection. In a New York Times article today, they cite the Centers for Disease Control as claiming that 22% of hospital patients get an infection while hospitalized. Out of that 1.7 million, nearly 100,000 die each year.
This hits very close to home for me. I had a broken leg a few years ago. I had outpatient surgery to set it and put hardware in to hold everything in place. 4 months later I had an extended hospital stay due to a staph infection that apparently started with the surgery. It took months to recover from that.
While the article does say that hospitals are working to improve their procedures to help prevent the problem, it is still major.
Bottom line. Life insurance underwriters have good reason for concern and postponement in situations where you will be exposed to risk to that extent.
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.
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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