How to Get the Best Life Insurance for Alcoholics & Heavy Drinkers in [2023]
Applying for life insurance for alcoholics or recovering alcoholics is
no longer a complicated process using the proper insurers. If you are a drinker and would like to apply for life insurance, take a few minutes to read this blog post. You will learn to shop for the best rates, apply, and get approved with the best life insurance products available.
Find out how life insurance companies observe applicants who use alcoholic beverages. Also, what do they look for in an application, and what could get your application declined after applying?
Table of Contents
- Can Alcoholics Get Life Insurance?
- Will Being a Heavy Drinker Affect My Rates?
- Does Life Insurance Cover Alcoholism?
- Will Life Insurance Cover Alcohol-Related Deaths?
- How Can I Purchase Life Insurance for Alcoholics?
- How to Buy Life Insurance for Recovering Alcoholics
- Heavy Drinking and Suicide Attempts
- How Do Carriers Look at Alcohol Consumption?
- What Is a CDT Test, and Why is It Used?
- How Does a CDT Test Work?
- What Are the Medical Tests for Alcohol Dependency?
- What Are Life Insurance Rate Classifications?
- Is Term Life Insurance a Good Choice for Alcoholics?
- How Does a DUI or DWI Affect My Application?
- Can I Apply Without Taking a Medical Exam?
- Compare Life Insurance Quotes for Alcoholics
- In Conclusion
Keep in mind that purchasing life insurance for alcoholics or recovering alcoholics is done on a case-by-case basis.
Can Alcoholics Get Life Insurance?
The short answer here would be yes, along with the same situation for recovering alcoholics. The question I hear regularly is, can alcoholics get life insurance? The answer to these questions can sometimes go either way. It will depend on how much alcohol you consume each day.
Just because you consume hard liquor or a lot of beer regularly and drink quite a bit, you may not be addicted. You may just be considered a heavy drinker who, hopefully, is still in good health. A heavy drinker with a drinking-related medical condition will be another story altogether. This indicates drinking-related medical problems that have already started and will probably worsen.
Can Being a Heavy Drinker Affect My Rates?
Anytime you drink in excess of alcohol and plan to apply for life insurance, your rates will be affected. Your rates can increase depending on how much alcohol you drink and whether your current health has been affected. Alcohol use will affect your health classification, otherwise known as your rate class. Your rate class will determine your premiums once your application has been approved.
Does Life Insurance Cover Alcoholism?
Apply for life insurance and answer your alcohol-related questions honestly. If you are dishonest with your answers and misrepresent yourself by lying on your application, that can become a problem.
An insurance company may not cover a death claim due to an omission you deliberately made on your application. Therefore, it is crucial to be honest, and always tell the truth. Lying on an application is a disaster for any insurance application, not just life insurance.
Approximately 29 people in the United States die in drunk driving wrecks each day in the United States. Alcohol-related deaths exceed over 10,000 lives each year!
Will Life Insurance Cover Alcohol-Related Deaths?
Yes, a life insurance policy will pay off your death benefit if you die from an alcohol-related death, such as liver cirrhosis, heart attack, stroke, and alcohol poisoning. People will often purchase life insurance and not have any dependency at all. Instead, they start drinking and become hefty drinkers as the year progresses. The life insurance policy they bought years ago will be paid out with no problem.
Suppose you are an occasional drinker before a new application. Make sure you answer all questions about drinking are answered honestly. Just answer the questions on the application without adding any additional specific information unless you are asked for more details.
Alcohol is the third medical-related cause of death in America. Did you know that 95,000 people die from related deaths each year? This statistic breaks down to 27,000 females and 68,000 males.
How Can I Apply for Life Insurance for Alcoholics?
The first task to save time and money is straightforward. It would help if you connected with an independent agent, also known as a broker. Your agent will do about 90% of the work for you without cost or obligation. First, your agent’s job is to run a simple but thorough medical pre-screen of your alcohol use and health history. This will also help eliminate any surprises after submitting your application.
Your agent will help you choose the most applicable company to apply with and set you up with a quick and straightforward telephone application. Your independent agent will assist you every step of the way in making your application process a breeze.
How to Buy Life Insurance for Recovering Alcoholics
When I talk about an actual heavy drinker, I refer to people who consume a large amount of alcohol daily. If you look at yourself as an alcohol abuser, you may be addicted to this chemical. Your high volume of alcohol consumption puts you into a much higher life insurance rate classification.
You should contact an independent insurance agent like ourselves to run a quick 10-minute pre-screen to get an idea of what would happen if you applied. Don’t just jump in and apply before pre-screening your health and degree of use. The help you receive from an agent can either make or break your application.
Heavy Drinking and Suicide Attempts
The statistics indicate that alcoholics are 120 times more likely to commit suicide than those who have no chemical dependency on the drug at all. The national average is someone in the United States tries to commit suicide every 40 seconds. Also, 29% of all suicide victims in this country had alcohol in their system. Suicide is prevalent among heavy drinkers, another huge risk for life insurance companies.
Suppose you are a heavy drinker and apply for life insurance after a suicide attempt. There is a fragile possibility that your application will be approved. Your only option will be a guaranteed issued life insurance product.
How Do Carriers Look at Alcohol Consumption?
Insurance companies have a negative opinion of alcohol use because of its long-proven history of causing severe health conditions.
Anytime you drink, this drug is immediately absorbed into your bloodstream and affects every single part of your body. This can put your health at severe risk and even inflict death as time goes by. Life insurance companies are always concerned about a vast number of medical conditions now or in the future, such as:
- Pancreas Problems and Damage
- Possible Onset of Diabetes
- Lack of Coordination Issues
- Passing Out (sudden blackouts)
- Vision Problems
- Becoming Addicted to Alcohol
- Stomach Ulcers
- Major Chronic Fatigue
- Becoming Infertile for Women
- Severe Liver Damage
- Slurring of the Speech
- Scary Hallucinations
- Malnutrition from Not Eating Properly
- Heart Destruction from Heart Valves to Cardiomyopathy
- Alcohol-Related Birth Defects in Women Having Babies
What is a CDT Test?
A CDT test is essential to measure a person’s body and its dependency and degree of alcohol use. Transferrin is a vital protein substance in the blood that carries valuable iron to the bone marrow, liver, and spleen. A CDT test is a necessary test to measure transferrin in the bloodstream. When someone drinks in excess, it drastically increases certain types of transferrin that are carbohydrate-deficient.
When carbohydrate-deficient transferrin steadily increases, it can be measured in the bloodstream and therefore is an accurate marker of the degree of abuse.
Why Is CDT Testing Important?
A significant study that used CDT testing among patients with hypertension and diabetes found 804 patients were involved in the study. Over 11 percent of people with diabetes and 17 percent of those with hypertension drank harmful amounts of alcoholic beverages. As a result, doctors and life insurance companies commonly use CDT testing.
How Does a CDT Test Work?
CDT is a measurement by taking a sample of an individual’s blood. Those who do not consume alcohol or use small quantities will have much lower carbohydrate-deficient transferrin test levels in their bloodstream. On the other hand, people who drink five or more drinks a day for at least five days a week for approximately two weeks before the testing will have CDT at much higher levels.
CDT testing accurately detects individuals who are drinking heavily. If the person stops drinking or slows down, the CDT levels will also decrease. Then if they start drinking heavily again, the levels will rise to a high degree. This test acts as a fuel gage for the amount of alcohol consumed and is still evident in the body.
What Are the Medical Tests for Alcohol Dependency?
Other than the very common and well known CDT test. The four other tests below can reflect more reliable information to determine alcohol dependency and a drinker’s health status.
- Gamma-Glutamyl Transferase (GGT) Test
- Ethyl Glucuronide (EtG) Test
- Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT) Test
- Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST) Test
Rate Classes and Your Premiums
Getting the best health classification possible should always be the primary goal of getting the best life insurance rates.
Preferred Best:
Preferred Best is the best classification possible, and it’s for above-average healthy applicants. These are the very best classes you can be assigned. About 10% of all applicants qualify for the preferred best rates.
Preferred:
Preferred Non-Tobacco is an excellent rate class for healthy applicants that may have minor health conditions. For example, some diseases like high blood pressure or high cholesterol controlled by drugs can fall into a preferred classification.
Standard Plus:
Standard Plus is a rate class for relatively healthy applicants with multiple or more severe conditions.
Standard:
This class is similar to standard plus but for applicants with several more serious medical conditions.
Substandard Classes:
Substandard health classes can use table ratings which generally begin with an A and go down to the letter J. Some companies will use the number system, 1-10. For example, “Standard Rate Table B” or “Standard Rate Table 2”. See our blog post on rate classification for more information.
Is Term Life Insurance a Good Choice for Alcoholics?
The first question someone shopping for life insurance for alcoholics will ask is, how much will life insurance cost? Many variables determine an applicant’s premium. The plan design choice to start with will be affordable term life insurance. The term will cost a fraction of any other plan design. It would help if you considered that your specific drinking habits would probably increase your premium.
Term life insurance will be your only logical choice when adding that extra cost factor. On the other hand, universal life, an excellent permanent plan design, will cost you much more and will not be cost-effective unless you have a huge budget.
How Would a DUI or DWI Affect My Application?
A recent drunk driving conviction will usually cause an application to be declined.
If your driving record shows that you have been arrested for a DUI, your application could quickly be declined. Statistics show that hundreds of people are killed each year by operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. 
When applying for life insurance, the last straw is a history of heavy drinking and driving drunk on an application.
Life insurance companies do not like the idea of an intoxicated individual knowing they have been drinking but still deciding to get behind the wheel. This tells them that the driver will jeopardize other people’s lives. If they will drive drunk, who knows what else they can do?
What is No Medical Exam Life Insurance?
If you are in poor health, a non-medical exam policy will usually not be acceptable.
If you plan on applying for life insurance for alcoholics, consider the non-medical exam options if you go this route. You will not have to take a physical exam at all. In addition, purchasing non-med plan designs typically means not having to produce medical records from your doctor’s office. All of the best life insurance companies have this option with your choice of plan designs.
A few people who apply for life insurance for alcoholics find this an excellent route. The turnaround time can also be very quick, 24 to 48 hours. You can still get excellent life insurance rates with no medical exam life insurance, but they are a little more expensive. A fully underwritten policy typically takes a month to six weeks to approve.
How Can I Compare the Best Life Insurance Quotes for Alcoholics?
Suppose you are ready to start comparing plan designs and premiums. You can begin comparing the lowest rates from the most competitive companies in your state. Our instant quoting system displays the best rates from over 40 life insurance companies. In addition, we can give you a more accurate quote if you have any health concerns by calling us. We utilize over 40 life insurance companies to ensure you receive the lowest rates possible.
You will find that affordable term life insurance will be the most cost-effective with no close second.
In Conclusion
If you are an alcoholic or a recovering alcoholic, we can help you get the best life insurance rates. There is never any cost
to apply, and there is no obligation. We work with the most liberal companies to provide the best rates and approvals for alcohol users. Thank you for reading this blog post; I hope it has answered many of your questions.
All the best,
Jack Venturi
708-334-6226
If you have any questions about applying for life insurance for alcoholics, contact us today and let us help you with no cost or obligation. Remember that we are brokers and work for our clients, not insurance companies. We will help you get approved for the best policy with the lowest rates. You can also set up a time at your convenience to talk.
