Life Insurance with Pre-Existing Conditions
According to the Ministry of Health’s Annual Health Survey 2018-19¹, almost 2 million kiwis suffer from a medical condition. These chronic conditions ranging from heart disease to asthma, to depression and anxiety disorders.
Question is, can you get life insurance with pre-existing conditions?
The good news is, it may be possible to get life insurance with many pre-existing conditions, including cancer. But details matter and each offer for life insurance depend on your specific health situation.
I often meet people who think or assume that because of pre-existing conditions they don’t stand a chance of getting life insurance. This could not be further from the truth.
But the older we get, the more illnesses and issues become apparent.
We all know someone who has suffered from cancer, diabetes, asthma or high BMI.
And another assumption is that because of pre-existing conditions; many people also think that they will end up paying more and current health conditions will not be covered.
A one-size-fits-all approach is not appropriate here. This is where a good broker is worth his or her weight in gold because every company has its prices, policies and guidelines.
There are a couple of ways to get life insurance with pre-existing conditions.
Insurance companies evaluate your health condition according to pre-set guidelines.
Life insurance with pre-existing conditions all depends on the seriousness of the pre-existing condition.
It also depends on whether your condition is well-managed with medication/treatment, or in some cases when you had your last episode.
The evaluation also involves your latest medical tests (sometimes a new medical checkup is necessary) and the reports supplied by your doctors and hospital reports.
1. Life Insurance with pre-existing conditions through the employer
Does your employer provide a group life insurance scheme?
According to seek.co.nz, the most wanted employee benefit is employer sponsored medical insurance.
A group life or medical insurance scheme offers the ability to have life insurance with pre-existing conditions automatically covered.
As not all employers offer a group scheme, perhaps it is an idea to approaching the owner, manager or HR department and ask about it.
It is in the company’s best interest to offer employees insurance as it reduces sick days, increases staff engagement and loyalty/morale.
Creating a company group scheme is easy and quick to set up.
Talk to LifeCovered today about how to tailor-make your group scheme.
2. Life Insurance with pre-existing conditions without underwriting
Life Insurance without underwriting is avoiding the process in which the life insurance company assesses an application.
The purpose of underwriting is to ensure the policy is priced relatively, depending on your medical history.
Therefore when going for a life insurance without underwriting, you are going for a policy that in the eyes of the insurance company involves higher risk. And thus higher premiums.
There are often exclusions, which typically say that the health conditions are excluded for a couple of years. Here is an example from Sovereign:
There are several providers of life insurance without underwriting. And it is easy, quick and fast to get started, because of no disclosure and no underwriting.
- https://minhealthnz.shinyapps.io/nz-health-survey-2018-19-annual-data-explorer/_w_ec1686e4/#!/home