Life Insurance for Aldara users.

In this article, we wanted to take a moment and try and answer some of the most common questions we get from folks applying for life insurance after they have been prescribed the topical anti-tumor medication Aldara or its generic form Imiquimod. Both of which can be used to treat a variety of different skin disorder, including:

• Actinic keratosis (or a fancy way of saying sun-damaged skin),
• Skin cancer (basal cell carcinoma),
• And/or genital warts.

Questions that will be directly addressed will include:

• Can I qualify for life insurance after I’ve been prescribed Aldara?
• Why do life insurance companies care if I’ve been prescribed Aldara?
• What kind of information will the insurance companies ask me or be interested in?
• What rate (or price) can I qualify for?
• What can I do to help ensure that I get the “best life insurance” for me?

So, without further ado, let’s dive right in!

Can I qualify for life insurance after I’ve been prescribed Aldara?

Yes, folks who have been prescribed Aldara in the past or are currently taking Aldara can and often will be able to qualify for a traditional term or whole life insurance policy. In fact, some may even be able to qualify for some of the best no medical exam life insurance companies at a Preferred rate! 

Which is why some folks may then ask…

Why do life insurance companies care if I’ve been prescribed Aldara?

Even though a lot of the best term life insurance companies (in our humble opinion) will still consider an individual who has been prescribed Aldara still eligible for a Preferred rate when applying for a traditional term or whole life insurance policy, they will remain interested in the fact that you have been prescribed this medication primarily because it can be commonly used to help treat those who have been diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma.

And while…

It is true that individuals who have been diagnosed with Basal Cell Carcinoma can qualify for traditional life insurance policies, what is also true is that any time you mention the word “cancer” around a life insurance underwriter, they tend to get a bit “nervous”.

The good news is…

Because basal cell carcinoma is a slow-growing form of skin cancer that is typically easy to remove, simply having been diagnosed with it will not carry the same “weight” as a diagnosis of a different, more difficult form of cancer to treat.

As a result…

Even those who have been prescribed Aldara to help them treat a basal cell carcinoma can and often will be able to qualify for a Preferred rate as well. 

The only difference is that…

Before earning this “rate” clients will likely need to answer a series of questions about their previous skin cancer diagnosis before they are approved for coverage.

What kind of information will the insurance companies ask me or be interested in?

When it comes to an individual’s Aldara prescription, pretty much all a life insurance company is going to want to know about is whether or not it has been prescribed to you to treat skin cancer.

So…

If you’re simply using your Aldara to treat some sun-damaged skin or to minimize the size of one’s genital warts, you need not worry about being grilled with a thousand questions about your condition; instead, you’ll likely be asked…

“Have you ever been diagnosed with skin cancer?”

To which you will respond…

“No”

And most life insurance underwriters will move on and not worry about the “details” of your situation.

Now for those….

Who have been prescribed Aldara to help them treat their basal cell carcinoma, you will likely be asked some additional questions so that they can get a better idea of how “serious” your exposure to skin cancer was. And try to get a better idea of what kind of “risk” you might pose to them as a future client.

Questions you might be asked may include:

• When where you originally diagnosed with skin cancer?
• What type(s) of skin cancer have you been diagnosed with?
• How many “cancer-spots” have been discovered?
• In addition to being prescribed Aldara, what other treatment options did you receive?
• Have you completed all of your treatments now?
• Aside from skin cancer, have you been diagnosed with any other types of cancer? Or has it been determined that your skin cancer has metastasized to another part of your body?
• Have you experienced any “reoccurrences” of cancer in locations that have been previously treated?

What rate (or price) can I qualify for?

Assuming that you have not been diagnosed with skin cancer, we here at IBUSA feel pretty comfortable assuming that your Aldara prescription should not affect the outcome of your life insurance application in any way.

Or to put in another way…

If you have been prescribed Aldara to treat sun-damaged skin or genital warts, you will still be considered eligible for a Preferred rate when applying for a traditional term or whole life insurance policy.

We also feel…

Pretty comfortable stating that if you have been diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma (skin cancer) and:

• It was limited to just one or two spots,
• It didn’t metastasize to any other locations,

And it/they have all been successfully removed/treated; you too should be considered eligible for a Preferred rate.

That said, however…

If you seem to be prone to developing basal cell carcinomas like many of us are, and have had to have many removed as you’ve grown older. At the same time, it is quite possible that you will still be able to qualify for a traditional term or whole life insurance policy, chances are you’ll now have to settle for a Standard or Standard Plus rate. 

Which isn’t all that bad…

It just means that you’ll want to be more “selective” when it comes to which life insurance company you choose to apply with so that you can get the “best” rate at that classification.

This brings us to the last topic which we wanted to discuss here in this article, which is…

What can I do to help ensure that I get the “best life insurance” for me?

In our experience here at IBUSA, what we have found that seems to work the “best” for helping folks find the best life insurance policy that they can qualify for is to…

 First…

Fully understand what the client is hoping to achieve by purchasing their life insurance policy.

And second…

Make sure that we here at IBUSA have plenty of options for them to choose from so that we don’t have to rely on just one or two different options.

Which is why…

Our recommendation to anyone looking to purchase a term or whole life insurance policy whether they’ve been diagnosed with a serious pre-existing medical condition or not is to first make sure that you choose to work with a life insurance agent who takes the time to understand what you’re looking to accomplish.

From there, you’ll just want to make sure that this agent has dozens of different life insurance companies to choose from.

Now, will we be able to help out everyone who has been prescribed Aldara?

No, probably not. But what we can tell you is that in addition to offering a wide variety of different term and whole life insurance policies, IBUSA has also worked very hard to establish relationships with many of the Best Final Expense Insurance Companies as well.

So that…

In the event that someone isn’t able to qualify for a traditional life insurance policy, chances are there may be some other “type” of product that you CAN qualify for.

So, if you’re ready to see what options might be available to you, just give us a call!