Probably the most difficult part of
running your
term life
insurance quote is choosing a
health class. With a range from
"best class" to "Standard" rate, what
criteria drives this determination.
What if you have high cholesterol?
What about height/weight? This may
be where the Standard risk health class
comes into play so look at qualification
and the resulting effect on rate.
People with health impairments are
usually surprised they can qualify for
life insurance at all. This is
partially to blame on health insurance
which is probably more stringent than
life insurance in that respect. To
account for the range of health status
that you find in the general public, the
carriers designate
life insurance
health classes which affect
pricing tiers. The Standard risk
class is usually lowest (or least
favorable) unless the particular carrier
has a Sub-Standard class (the equivalent
of double secret probation). We'll
break down the general categories for a
Standard risk underwriting tier by
category.
Let's
start with the general category of
Cardiovascular health and all the issues
that are directly or loosely tied to
general cardiovascular health. The
Standard risk class is usually the least
favorable class you can get and some
health impairments are allowed.
There can even a history of some
cardiovascular diseases or diabetes.
These conditions will likely need to
well maintained and treated. This
is also true for high blood pressure
which must have average readings in the
past two years not greater than: 150/90
- age 45 and younger, 154/93 - ages
45-60, 158/95 - ages 61 and over.
Cholesterol levels should not be over
280 which in actually pretty flexible
considering that over 200 would cause
most health insurance application to be
declined. The HDL to total
Cholesterol ratio should not exceed 7.5.
There should be no tobacco use in the
last 12 months. In terms of
cardiovascular family health, there
should be no or just one death before
age 60 for family members.
As
for driving history, there should be no more than 2 moving violations
in the past 3 years. There
should be no record
of DUI or reckless driving in
the past 2 years. A
question that comes up from prospective
term life applicants is why driving
record would matter for life insurance
qualification. The claims and
life actuarial
tables drive this.
Car accidents are leading cause of death
for people. Moving violations and
DUI's essentially increase this risk.
As
for cancer, there can be history of
cancer but it will depend on type of
cancer, duration of cancer, time away
from being symptom free, and current
status. Cancer is tougher to spell
out in concrete terms since it can range
from fairly benign to very serious.
The good news is that treatment
continues to improve people's ability to
qualify so that cancer is becoming more
a morbidity issue than a mortality
issue.
For
aviation, commercial airline pilots
may be accepted. If you are a private pilot,
a flat
extra premium may be applied depending on
experience. For hazardous
activities and occupations, Standard
health class may be available but will
likely result in a higher flat life
premium addition.
As
with all Health Classes, it's best to go
in conservatively when you run your
quote so that you can correctly budget.
We usually recommend going down the
scale one level just to make sure
there's no surprise when the offer comes
back. As for the effect of health
class? For a 40 year old in
California applying for 15 years of
$500K worth of term, the Best Class is
$28/monthly. It's $48 for Standard
Plus and $63 for Standard. So you
can see that term life insurance health
class directly affects your rates.
To some extent, with the Standard risk
class, we're just happy to
qualify for term
life insurance. The
ability to get life insurance with
health issues at all is the silver
lining.
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