Can You Get Life Insurance After Cancer?

Can you get life insurance if you have cancer or if you have had cancer in the past? If you currently have cancer, it is going to be very challenging to get a life insurance policy right now. Maybe some types of final expense life insurance policies, but if you're looking for a large whole life or term life policy, it's going to be tough. Now, if you've had cancer in the past, it's possible, but it is going to depend on a lot of things. It's almost always a case-by-case basis. And the thing that I'll mention is the more information you can provide to your agent about your cancer and really the full history, the better the outcome will be. Specifically, when I say the better the outcome, you getting an answer to know whether or not you being approved for a life insurance policy is possible now, in the future, And if it makes sense where you might be approved now, maybe it makes sense to wait a little bit because of what's called temporary ratings or extra charges that can be assessed to a life insurance policy. So just to go through a couple of points here, if you've had cancer in the past, the most important thing that is going to determine whether or not you'll be able to get a policy is the type of cancer. Some types are an automatic decline for at least 10 years, where the insurance company looks at a certain type of cancer and says, even though you recovered, because that type of cancer is so aggressive, and we've seen it come back in so many patients or so many people over the years, we want to wait at least 10 years before we'll even consider you for a policy. Other types are five years. Some types of cancer are only one to two years. Another big thing that has an impact on whether or not you'll be approved for a policy is destaging. For example, if you have melanoma, which can be very dangerous if it's detected in a later stage, but you catch it very, very early on and it's just surface level on your skin, it's removed, everything's clean, you can get a policy very quickly, very shortly after, a few months afterwards. But if it was beyond stage one, now it's going to be tough to be approved for a policy. And that is just one type of cancer where there are countless types of cancer. Another thing is the date of diagnosis. Almost every single time, the insurance company is going to ask for the original date of diagnosis. They want to see when you were diagnosed, how long you had the cancer for, and then what was the treatment. Did you just have surgery? Did you have radiation? Did you have to go through chemo? How long was the treatment? And then when was the last treatment? They're looking at the date, they're looking at the whole treatment, the date of the last treatment. And then since that treatment, has there been any reoccurrences or recurrences of the cancer you've had? Were there any complications with the treatment? This one's important. So when I say, when was your most recent follow-up? The insurance company really wants to see that you are regular with following up with a doctor just to make sure that you're monitoring your blood work, any recommended CT scans. They want to know that you're just not winging it and saying, hey, yeah, the doctor recommended that I go have a CT scan every six months, but I just don't do it because I think I'm okay. It's like, no, they're not going to approve you for a policy. They want to make sure you are regular with your follow-up and your... You're checking on your health. They want to make sure that you actually care. Not to say you don't care, but for them to approve a life insurance policy, they need to know that you are following the doctor's orders. And then how long have you been cancer free? If you've had it in the past, again, the length of time, specifically the number of years is critical. So the thing is, an insurance company, when they are looking at your cancer history, they will review everything. They'll want to look at your medical records, the full history, and here's what I'll say. Before just applying for a life insurance policy, what you can do is what is called an informal application or an informal inquiry, where you are just saying, hey, I've had cancer. I want to get life insurance. Can you, insurance company A, tell me if I would be approved based on my cancer history? You're not formally applying because if you apply for a life insurance policy and you get declined or rated, you then have to disclose that in the future the next time you apply for a life insurance policy with any company. With the informal process, what you can do is just ask. You've got to sign off on a HIPAA form that authorizes the insurance company to order medical records from your doctor, from any specialists. And once they review all of your records, they're going to come back and say, based on everything we've seen, you'll be declined and we'll consider you in two years, or you'll be approved at a standard non-smoker rate, or you'll even get preferred. The thing is, you can get that tentative approval. After you get that, you can then formally apply. You'll have to have blood work done and they'll review that. If everything looks clean, then you'll probably get the rating they said you would get. So that's something we like to do for individuals who have had cancer in the past or really any type of medical history where we know it can result in a poor rating or a decline. I don't want to be quick to just pull the trigger and apply for a policy because if it makes life difficult for them in the future, then we're going to regret that. So I'd rather just go through that informal process, have an underwriter review everything, and then come back and say, based on what we see, Here's probably what you'll get. So to answer the question, can I get life insurance if I have had cancer in the past? Yes, it's possible, but it heavily depends on all of the factors we talked about. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments.