Can You Get Life Insurance If You Have a Pre-Existing Condition

Can You Get Life Insurance If You Have a Pre-Existing Condition

If you have a chronic health condition, then you will likely have to deal with certain medical needs for the rest of your life. These might include things like diabetes, heard or kidney disease or even cancer. Even if you have the illness under control, you still have a risk of a relapse. Additionally, you have a risk of an earlier death, which could make you worry about your family’s financial future.

To shore up your financial security, you might want to get life insurance. However, because of your pre-existing condition, you might find that it is harder to get the life insurance you want. All the same, there is still hope. Though there might be a few restrictions in your way, you can still often still qualify for quality life insurance that will provide you with strong protection.

What are my life insurance options if I have a chronic illness?

If you have a critical or chronic issue, then some life insurers might find you too big of a risk to cover. Or, they will exclude you from coverage under some policies, but can still offer you other coverage.

Most life insurers will require you to undergo a medical exam to get a policy. They do so because they want to gauge your risk of death based on your current health. A pre-existing condition might be a marker that will disqualify you from coverage after you complete your policy application.

However, some policies do not require applicants to receive medical exams. These are usually called guaranteed issue policies, and an applicant can choose a benefit up to a certain amount of money without an examination. Though these might be a bit more expensive than the average medical-exam policy, they still can be affordable, and make it easy for applicants to get the coverage they deserve.

How can I get a guaranteed-issue policy?

There generally is no special requirement that you have to meet to be able to request a no-medical-exam life insurance policy. Therefore, the application process will generally be pretty easy.

Contact your life insurance carrier and explain your condition and concerns about qualifying for coverage. They’ll help you review the policy options from different carriers to decide which ones are best for you. Because these policies might be more expensive than a policy that requires an exam, it is important to be able to compare several policy options to determine the best one for you.

Plus, if you can qualify for a policy that requires a medical exam, then it is still important to take this step. In the end, you might save money on your coverage overall.