Your term life policy and medical issues

Your medical condition affects your policy or your application for a life insurance policy. Your health is one of the most important factors that will be considered when the insurance company evaluates your application.

Here are some medical-related issues that you have to be aware of when you make your application for a term life insurance policy:

• Medical disclosures.

  Check that all your answers to your application are correct and in order. Honesty is important in this aspect. Misrepresenting your application may cause your policy to be cancelled and your beneficiary’s claim to be denied. Of course, there is also the contestability period for your policy. During this period, if anything happens to you and you pass away and the cause of your death is traced to a condition that you have denied or failed to disclose in your application, this means that the insurance company can contest the claim and not pay the sum insured.

• Premium reviews during renewal.

  Since you are applying for a term insurance policy, you should be aware that depending on the type of term insurance, there will be regular reviews and the premiums may be revised depending on your health condition, as well as on other underwriting issues. If you want to avoid this, you can also opt for a guaranteed renewable life insurance plan, which guarantees your premiums for the entire policy period. After which, if you decide to continue with the policy, the insurance company may again review the type of risk you present and set the premiums accordingly.

• Medical underwriting.

  Don’t be put off with the medical exam. This is really a straightforward affair and will not cost you anything. The insurance company will spend to have you undergo the medical exam. It usually involves a General Practitioner’s Report, where a doctor will review vital medical indicators (such as your blood pressure, height and weight) and then ask you some medically-related questions. There is also what is called a Full Medical, where additional tests may be requested if the doctor suspects that you already have an existing medical condition. The doctor may request further blood tests, as well as encephalograms and so on. Find out more by reading Applying for term life insurance.

• Non-medical term life insurance.

  There are also insurance policies that can be issued without need for medical exams. This depends on the rating of the insurance agency (whether he has non-medical privileges) and is limited to a certain sum insured.

More about the Medical Underwriting Process

Based on the Friends Life Underwriting Guide, having an illness or condition does not mean that you are automatically declined cover or that you need to pay an arm and a leg for the cover. There are positive and negative features and other factors to consider during the evaluation:

Factors to Consider:

• Age at the time the illness is diagnosed. For some illnesses, if it is diagnosed while the applicant is young (under 40), the application is usually declined.
• Family history
• BMI
• Frequency of symptoms, attacks or episodes
• Severity of symptoms
• How the illness may affect mobility

Positive Features:

• Treatment of the illness, whether there are regular check-ups and monitoring
• Response to the diagnosis, whether there is good compliance and modifications of lifestyle
• Absence of hospital admissions for the past 5 years for the particular illness

Negative Features:

• Smoking habit
• Alcohol consumption
• Frequent hospital admissions
• Poor control of the illness

To secure your family's future, fill in the form on the right and get your term life insurance quote now.