The diagnosis of cancer is a life-changing event that can be overwhelming and scary. And while it is important to focus on your health and treatment, it is also important to consider the financial implications of your diagnosis as well.

Even if you’re already in remission and are technically cancer free!

One big step in this direction for a lot of individuals will be to review their current life insurance situation.  For those without coverage, this may be their first-time shopping for coverage, while for those with an existing policy, it could mean looking for additional coverage.

Additionally, some applicants may have realized during their cancer scare that most (if not all) of their life insurance protection is linked to their employment status, which is not something that they feel comfortable with any longer.  Either way, we here at IBUSA understand that being diagnosed with cancer has the ability to put life into perspective and motivate people in a very powerful way.

The importance of life insurance after a cancer diagnosis:

Having a life insurance policy in place after you have been diagnosed with cancer can provide peace of mind for you and your loved ones, knowing that your family will be financially protected in the event of your death. It can also help alleviate the financial burden of unexpected expenses, such as funeral costs, that may arise after your death.

And while most “types” of cancer will prevent you from being able to qualify for a traditional term or whole life insurance policy while you are currently being treated, many types of cancer survivors will become eligible once they have entered into remission and have remained cancer free for a certain period of time.

Top 15 Most Common Types of Cancers we encounter here at IBUSA.

(Links to articles about different types of cancers and their eligibility for coverage)

(in alphabetical order)

(Statistical data provided by the National cancer Institute.)

Applicants who are currently treating their cancer.

As a general rule of thumb, regardless of what “type” of cancer you’ve been diagnosed with, most carriers aren’t going to be all that interested in insuring someone who is currently receiving cancer treatment.  In cases like these, most cancer patients will need to either wait until they have been declared cancer-free or they may need to consider an alternative product such as an Accidental Death Policy or a Final Expense Life Insurance Policy.

Now…

There will be those few cases such as skin cancer or benign tumors where treatment may simply consist of surgically removing the tumor in which case a person will likely be able to qualify for coverage immediately after they have been “cured”, but even in very “mild” cases, some insurance companies may want to wait a few months or even a few years before they will consider someone potentially eligible for traditional life insurance coverage.

Which means…

That if you’ve been diagnosed with a more serious type of cancer or if your cancer treatment is going to require more than just a simple surgery to remove it, chances are, you’re not going to be eligible for a traditional term or whole life insurance policy for quite some time.

Which brings us to our next group of applicants which will be those who are currently in remission.

Applicants who are currently in remission.

When it comes time to helping out clients who are currently in remission, there are a couple of guidelines that we generally like to follow regardless of what “type” of cancer you have been diagnosed with.  These guidelines will generally provide us with a pretty good idea about how an insurance underwriter will “view” your life insurance application upon submission.

Now it should be noted however…

That there are over 100 different types of cancers an individual can be diagnosed with which is why we’re simply going to try to provide one with a “rudimentary” understanding of how an insurance underwriter will “view” an insurance application from someone who has been diagnosed with cancer in the past.

We also want to stress that these “guidelines” will not necessarily mean that you’ll automatically be approved for coverage (or automatically declined), there only meant to help set ones’ expectations on what is most likely to occur.

General underwriting guidelines for cancer survivors.

When helping cancer survivors find a life insurance policy that they will be eligible for, important factors like:

• What type of cancer did you have?
• What “stage” was your cancer diagnosed at?
• And what types of treatments did you require?

Will all certainly play a major role in determining if and when you’ll be eligible for a traditional term or whole life insurance policy.

The only problem with looking at questions like these is that, is it very difficult to get a “broad” understanding of what an insurance underwriter will be “concerned” about when we focus our attention to, too many specific details.

This is why, for the purposes of our discussion here…

We’re going focus more on what “category” of cancer you experienced and focus on whether or not your cancer spread from its original tumor site (metastasized) to another body part.

Benign Tumors and Skin Cancers.

As a general rule of thumb, benign tumors and less aggressive forms of skin cancers (basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinomas, and in situ melanomas), will be some of the few cancers that an insurance company will be willing to insure within the first year one has been determined “cancer free”.

This is mainly because, benign tumors are non-cancerous tumors that lack the ability to invade any of its neighboring cells or tissues, thereby preventing it from being able to metastasize.

Now while skin cancers are considered true cancers and do possess the ability to metastasize, in “most” cases due to their physical location on top of the skin, these cancers will often be diagnosed and removed prior to them becoming a significant health risk.

That being said however…

Aggressive or “non-in situ” forms of melanomas can be very dangerous which is why they would not be considered in this category we are discussion now.  “Non-in situ” forms of melanomas survivors would need to wait longer before they would be eligible for a traditional term or whole life insurance policy.

As for what rate class individuals might qualify for with these types of tumors, it would be safe to say that in some situations many may qualify for a Preferred rate provided that they would meet all other requirements to be eligible.

Most other malignancies.

So, now that we’ve covered benign tumors and skin cancers, let’s turn our attention to other types of malignancies and get a general “feel” for how long it will take for an insurance company to consider providing coverage.

With these types of cancers, we only want to focus on cancer types that only occurred in a single tumor location and DID NOT metastasize to other part of the body.

For individuals who survived a non-metastatic malignancy…

What you’re generally going to find that insurance companies are going to require at least 2 years of remission before they’ll begin considering your life insurance application for approval.  It also goes without saying that the more time you have been “cancer free”, the greater chances you’ll have to be approved.  In fact, the general guidelines are pretty vague in this area which is why most underwriting guidelines will only commit to a 2-4 year window when applications will begin to actually be considered.

And even after 4 years of remission….

Many applicants will still be denied coverage until even more time has elapsed since their last date of treatment.  This is why here at IBUSA, we’ll often seek out the advice of an insurance underwriter prior to actually submitting ones’ life insurance application so that we can avoid any unnecessary denials.

Possible approval rates.

Individuals in this category, may be eligible for a Standard rate (in rare cases), but will usually end up qualifying for what is called a “table rate” (table rates range from Table A through H).  Table rates are rates used by the insurance companies for those who are deemed “higher” risk applicants and will therefore typically need to pay more for their insurance.

The good news is that we here at InsuranceBrokersUSA work with many different life insurance companies so if you do qualify for a Table Rating, we’ll be able to compare many different Table Rate prices for you in an effort to find the lowest price possible.

Metastatic Malignancies.

Metastatic malignancies are cancers that originate in one part of the body and then metastasizes to another part.  This new tumor will then be called a secondary tumor or metastatic tumor and will contain cells very similar to those found in the original tumor site.

Now it’s not all that…

Difficult to understand why going from a single tumor site to multiple tumor sites is going to significantly complicate ones’ life insurance applicant.  The good news is that while it will may be more difficult to qualify for life insurance, with a metastatic malignancy in the past, most applicants will be eligible for coverage in the future provided that enough time has passed since their last date of treatment.

That being said however…

Those who have been diagnosed with a metastatic malignancy will need to wait a minimum for 5 years and in many cases up to 10 years before they’ll be considered eligible for applying for a traditional term or whole life insurance policy.  These individuals will typically only be eligible for a Table Rating D-H when and if they are ever approved.

Now we’ll be the first to admit…

That we’ve tried to cover an incredible amount of information here in a very short time, and in doing so, we’ve really only begun to scratch the surface of what the “real” process of getting a life insurance policy after you’ve been diagnosed with cancer will look like.

But the truth is, much of the work that will be needed to be done in order for you to find a qualify life insurance policy after you’ve been diagnosed with cancer doesn’t need to be done by you, it needs to be done by us!

This is why we wrote this article so that you can get a general idea about what to expect, not so that you can become an expert yourself.

You see, we only have one goal here at InsuranceBrokersUSA and that is to help you find the best life insurance policy that you can qualify for, this is why we want to you become an active participant in the process and understand why we may make the recommendations that we do!

Now will we be able to help out everyone who has been previously diagnosed with Cancer?

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 Burial Life 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!