Congratulations on making that “big” decision to purchase your life and health insurance (after much budgeting and persuasion)!
But… You have became unhealthy for the application so what may happen…
After 4 years of being in this industry, I have came across a wide range of clients who have such health issues, and as their servicing agent, sometimes, its my duty and obligation to help negotiate for better terms so that they can go ahead and get the coverage needed!
Anyway the purpose of this post is not to comment on the negotiations that I have gone through (if you like to know for your own purposes, you can comment here and I will put up on the next post) but to let you have a rough feel that if you have became unhealthy, what will normally happen to your life insurance application when you really need to get one.
And if there is a need to go for a medical check, I will be offering a short guide on how to ace (not really 100% effective) the checks.
What Happen When You Are Unhealthy For Your Insurance (Part 1 of 2)
To list out all the illnesses and its complications to your insurance can be exhaustive so for this moment I will be giving a general overview of the common illnesses and what you can expect.
So if you are unhealthy because you are suffering from:
Weight Issues
- To know your current BMI (body-mass-index), you can click here to use the calculator. If your BMI is around 25, this is a warning sign but not much of a worry for your application. But should it be higher around 27 and below 30, be expected to get a loading of a minimum 25%. This loading can go as high as to 125% so be careful! This loading is necessary as many healthcare professionals link obesity to many potential health risks (= potential insurance claims)
- Are there any ways to tackle the loading? Afraid not as every medical checks will need you to take your weight. Unless you are very sure you need to get an insurance soon, and you are willing to exercise and lose some weight before the check.
- My suggestion is that if you are “really” okay with the loading, just take it on and once you have lost some weight to the normal range, you can ask for a removal of the loading later.
High Cholesterol Levels
- Cholesterol levels are normally associated with your normal diet. If your diets are rather protein-rich, be expected to have elevated cholesterol levels. How the doctor will check for your cholesterol levels will be through a full blood test (which you may have to fast for at least 10 hours). If you have a chance to go through the readings of your cholesterol level, you can refer to this site (What Your Cholesterol Levels Mean) to see if you are healthy.
- The complication for your insurance application together with a high cholesterol level is usually a loading. And you can also remove this loading if you are able to show a normal cholesterol level after a year or so in your routine health check.
- To ace the blood test, I will normally suggest to my clients to go for a week-long detox diet and exercise. During this period, you have to control whatever you are eating: Less fatty meat, more green vegetables, less eggs, more fruits, ample sleep and do some exercises like brisk walking and such.
High Blood Pressure
- One of the common problems that many clients face and is also known as a silent killer. Why is that so? Till date, there are no known causes for this condition and it may just come knocking on your door when you decide to do a routine health check.
- If you have done a check recently, if your blood pressure is less than 120/80 mm Hg, it is generally considered ideal. Levels higher than this may increase your health risk for cardiovascular disease.
- Once you have it, chances are that you’ll be on long term medication to keep it under control and many healthcare professionals deem this condition as a potential risk for Stroke and Heart Attack.
- When it comes to life insurance application, there’ll be a definite loading (normally higher than that of high cholesterol levels) and chances of removing this loading are rather slim as well unless you can prove a clean bill of health (without the need of medication) for the next few years.
- When it comes to health insurance, there’ll a high chance that an exclusion (anything related to High Blood Pressure will not be claimable) will be imposed.
