When people say to me, "isn't it great, you beat oral cancer", I always joke back..." I may be feeling and looking fine now, but one thing is for sure...nobody would sell me a life insurance policy!" Barb, I imagine that this is true, unless, of course, you would pay an exorbitant rate for the insurance.
My mom, who is almost 87, decided about 5 or 6 years ago to buy life insurance and indeed they sold her a policy, but it cost her a fortune. After a few years she realized that it was a bad bet and she cancelled it. She would have done better investing the money spent on premiums.
Again, with our actuarial statistics I cannot believe that any company would sell us a life insurance policy at a realistic rate. On the other hand, I wonder if those of us with life insurance policies can sell them to viatical companies for cash like AIDS patients often do.

Best of luck,
Danny G.