Once you have been diagnosed with Cancer nobody will offer you life insurance. What can you do?

I have thought that possibly the best option would be to get a handful of those small $10k policies that they even offer the elderly, without having any mediacl exams...!

Any other ideas out there??

thanks

Dave,
You raise a good question and one that I do not have an answer to off the top of my head since I deal mainly on the medical insurance side of things. However, I am extremely interested in your question and believe there is always an answer/solution to every problem. Therefore, if you'll allow me the time I'd like to talk to a couple insurance commissions and insurance providers to determine what the options are here and get back to you. It may take me a few days so please bear with me!
Amy

I have to think that you would still be required to answer questions regarding your health. No medical exam probably does not mean no questions asked. If you tell them you have cancer they would, I imagine, turn you down. If you "misrepresent" and die of cancer related issues, again I'm making an assumption here, I think there would be a problem on payment.

My husband is an insurance agent and my father was an agent for 45 years. He put me to work when I was 14 in his agency so I have alot of insurance experience. When my husband was diagnosed, of course we started looking at our policies on him, and although we have alot since we sell it, it seems when this happens you suddenly feel like you can't have enough. (especially with three young children) Anyway, usually the co we work for will not even consider life insurance until you are 10 years out, then they will consider it and either issue it, decline it or issue it at a rated premium. I am sure there are companies that might write a little sooner, say five years out with a rated premium, but I'm not sure. As far as withholding the fact that you know you have cancer, there would be a problem when they filed the claim and medical records revealed it. I would check around with different companies and ask them there general policies regarding what they have to offer. I am pretty sure all of the companies that say there is no exam still have the minimum questions on their application. Good luck and if you find any places that offer it, please post. In the mean time if I learn of any, I will post too!

This is another excellent subject!

I have had lengthy discussion with my New York Life agent. I was smart/lucky to have a life policy with them for 100K. (which at this time seems pitifully small but much better than nothing). He said I MIGHT be able to sign up for more after 2 or 3 years but no garantees.

Insurance companies generally are interested in a profit (thats ok) and therefore are not going to assume financial risk. This means that IF you are able to qualify for any life policy, you will have to pay alot (as in 11k for a 10k policy).

Save your time and money on the TV type insurance plans, If you were able to get one, you will find it unlikely they will pay anything if you should die from cancer. (they might pay back your premiums).

Unfortunately we all are stuck by this and if anyone finds a company that will seriously take a cancer survivor, I would like to hear about it.

Thanks you all for your input........And looking forward to any more information that may come to light on this topic from others.

I would like to add this comment/lesson. In my opinion it is always better to not have your life policy through your employer, unless it is portable (meaning you can take it with you if you no longer working with that employer). Otherwise if you no longer work with the employer that you have your life insurance with, you will and up with no Life insurance.

Here are a few websites for folks specializing in finding life insurance for people with a history of cancer (there are many many more out there...search the web of send me an email and I will gladly help you find something more specific):

http://www.specialrisklifeinsurance.com/

http://www.cancerlifeinsurance.com/

http://info.insure.com/life/cancer.html

Warning: Always check the financial strength of the insurer before you buy any policy and be sure your agent or broker is licensed in your state.

Some other tidbits to consider:

>procedures and philosophies on offering life insurance policies to cancer survivors vary from insurer to insurer and depend greatly on the size, type, and location of your tumor

>Many insurers will offer life insurance policies to cancer survivors but they will likely impose a waiting period and a temporary extra premium

Amy,
Perhaps you can clarify something I had been told by someone in the insurance biz: That insurance companies watch or share information about how many times a persons medical files were looked at for insurance consideration, much like a credit applicant and their credit report.

Second, can a person request to edit their medical files to clarify or remove verbal comments made during office visits? (as an example) lets say I told the Dr. "this pain is so bad I could kill myself" and the Dr. made a note in the file with comments. This might affect getting life insurance.

thanks again Amy

Mark,
I'm not sure about your comment "That insurance companies watch or share information about how many times a persons medical files were looked at for insurance consideration, much like a credit applicant and their credit report."...but I will look into that further for you. Frankly, I don't know how they can do that under the current HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations. The rules are clear: "In addition, patients would have to sign a specific authorization before a covered entity could release their medical information to a life insurer, a bank, a marketing firm or another outside business for purposes not related to their health care." This would imply that no one would be able to obtain information or knowledge about you or your records without your permission. For more information on HIPAA visit http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/. There are penalties for violating these laws. If you feel someone has you can file a complaint at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacyhowtofile.htm.

As for your second question...your physicians and other healthcare providers are under an obligation to thoroughly document your care in your medical record. Information that is detrimental to planning and administering your care should be recorded in your medical record. Changing those records would at the very least be unethical and potentially illegal. Having said that, corrections can be made to medical records by entry of another dated note that documents the edits or corrections to previous entries. Under HIPAA, you do have the right to review your medical record and if you have questions or disagree with any entries to your record, you can request the physician make changes via an entry as noted previously. The physician however has the final say

Given the new law, my question is probably out dated. What I was told (a year or so ago) is that Life insurance companies are concerned about people that may be applying for multiple life insurance policies with the intent of then offing themselves (people will do the darndest things).

My concern (and question) was to make sure we don't accidently raise red flags by applying with many life insurance companies in an attempt to find one that might sign us up. With the new privacy laws it would seem that this is not a worry.