How Medical Conditions Can Affect Life Insurance Premiums

How to Apply for Life Insurance With a Risky Medical Condition & Get the Best Rates in [2024]

There are many risky medical conditions, such as heart disease, Cancer, Parkinson’s Disease, Dementia, and hundreds more. High-risk life insurance can naturally be triggered by health conditions, even your occupation, favorite sport, or hobby.

Unfortunately, you would never be aware of many of these until you apply for a life insurance policy. Therefore, it is essential to know what to do before you apply.

High-risk life insurance can cost more, but not always. This will depend on the applicant and their specific situation, such as their health and lifestyle.

This blog post is designed to teach you how to successfully purchase your life insurance and pay the lowest premiums possible once you are approved. 

 

What Is a Risky Medical Condition?

In short, a risky medical condition will be a health condition such as heart disease, Cancer, Diabetes, and many others that could limit your lifespan.

Most of the time, health conditions come into the picture with long-term risk factors which could cause an insured’s death. This is by far the most common factor to trigger high-risk exposure.

Sometimes medical conditions that start as simple and treatable can escalate to life-threatening situations. Unfortunately, medical underwriters cannot predict an individual’s future, but they must consider this seriously.

Even your lifestyle, which seems perfectly normal, may contain some high-risk ingredients. These could be hazardous occupations that could one day cause your death.

Last but not least, your lifestyle as far as hobbies and sports can put up a red flag and cause complications for your application for life insurance. For example, you may have a dangerous sports activity you enjoy, which could be classified as a possible threat to your life.

 

Can I Buy Life Insurance With a Risky Medical Condition?

Usually, you can apply and get approved for life insurance if you have a medical condition that is not severe. For example, if you have been diagnosed with Cancer or just had open-heart surgery, you will usually be declined.

In these extreme cases, you will have to wait until your condition has improved to re-apply. There are many medical conditions that you could have that will have little to no effect on your life insurance application.

One sure-fire way to tell if you will be accepted and get a projection of your premiums is with our medical pre-screen. This five-minute question-and-answer form will give us the information we need to make a judgment call on your future application. 

 

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You could be classified as high risk if anything in your life increases your death statistics before your projected life expectancy. Typically risky medical conditions are number one on the list.

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How Can I be Sure I’m Getting the Lowest Rates?

The responsibility lies with your independent agent (broker). We use over 40 top-rated companies, and we shop in the market hard to make sure we have our applicants apply with the best insurers.

Once the application process is completed, we will carefully review the final rates. If we believe there is a possibility of getting a lower premium for our client, we apply to several other companies.

Once all projected rates come in, we choose the carrier that offers the lowest rates and then present them to our clients for their consideration. When the smoke clears, our client will be guaranteed to receive the lowest premium possible.

The complete process is straightforward and requires little to no work for the applicant.

 

How Do Carriers Adjust Your Rates for Risky Medical Conditions?

Health Classifications:

Your rates may be affected in several ways, such as the health classification you will be placed in after you apply. The categories you receive can vary from one carrier to another, depending on their underwriting guidelines.

Here is a basic breakdown of the classifications:

• Preferred Plus
  
• Preferred
• Standard
• Standard Plus

If you use tobacco:

• Preferred Tobacco
• Standard Tobacco

These rate classes can also be subjected to table ratings, increasing your premiums by a percentage added to your base rates. They can use them with the letters A-J or number 1-10. Some companies use the number system, and other companies use the alphabet version.

Example: “Standard” (rate table C) or “Standard” (rate table 3). The higher the number or as the letters proceed, the higher the rates.

Here is a breakdown of the table ratings and their increase by percentage:

• Table rating A/1 = 25%
• Table rating B/2 = 50%
• Table rating C/3 = 75%
• Table rating D/4 = 100%
• Table rating E/5 = 125%
• Table rating F/6 = 150%
• Table rating G/7 = 175%
• Table rating H/8 = 200%
• Table rating I/9 = 225%
• Table rating J/10 = 250%

This will usually look complicated, but it is pretty simple after reviewing it.

Here is an example to help you better understand:

If you applied for a life insurance policy, the “Standard” rate class had a premium of $1,000.00 per year. Your final rates came back as a “Standard” rate class with a table rating of “D” or, in other words, a table rating of “4”. You would have a rate increase of $100%, which would now give you a final premium of $2,000.00 per year.

 

Can a Medical Pre-Screen Help Me Before I Apply?

A quick five-minute medical pre-screen can make all the difference in achieving the best rates. This information will help us choose the right company for you to apply to. It will also help project the outcome of your application before you even apply.

All pre-screening is, in essence, a simple five-minute course that asks a few basic questions concerning any possible health conditions and prescription drugs being taken.

It will also check to see if the potential applicant has a dangerous occupation or is involved with any hazardous sports that could affect his application once the underwriters begin working on it.

 

Can I Apply Over the Phone to Save Time?

You sure do, and we feel that this is the most convenient way of applying for life insurance. In the past, people used to have to complete a 20-page paper application which was a project that nobody appreciated.

Then the online application came along, which was much better. Still, many people would get confused with the online application, and you would have to own a computer with a good internet connection.

The telephone applications we use will take about 15-20 minutes to complete, and all you have to do is listen to the questions and then answer them.

So it does not get any simpler than that. Also, the girls in the application department are very efficient and friendly.

Our Final Thoughts

If you believe you have any risky medical conditions, contact us to help you. This is our business, and we have successfully done this for over 30 years.

Buying life insurance is very simple and quick with today’s modern application systems, especially when using the right agent to help you every inch of the way.

Please read some of our information-packed blog posts, and don’t forget to use our instant quoting system to see your options.

All the best,
Jack Venturi

*For any questions you might have, our live chat system is at your disposal or call us at 815-390- 7545 and we will provide a quick answer.

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If you believe you have a risky medical condition, contact us today and we will help you at no cost or obligation. You can also set up a specific time to get all your questions answered.

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