Life Insurance for Testicular Cancer Survivors
Why Cancer Survivors Should Try to Get Life Insurance
A guest post by: Brad Cummins, founder of Local Life Agents
A cancer survivor is just that: A survivor, through physical strength and personal resolve, of a vicious condition. The survivors I know have an encyclopedia-like awareness of their illness; they can cite, chapter and verse, every treatment they have undergone, every round of radiation or surgery they have received, and name every major research center or pharmaceutical company they have contacted.
What many survivors do not, however, know is this: Some of them can purchase life insurance. Cancer is not an actuarial scarlet letter, the sort of Big C that underwriters use as an excuse to deny all applicants coverage.
And, while it is true that someone who is a survivor of testicular cancer (to cite one example) often has a better chance of getting life insurance than someone with breast or brain cancer, a life insurance agent should nonetheless pursue all opportunities for each customer.
If this fact is news to many, and I am sure it is, please accept my apology on behalf of the insurance industry. For insurance agents need to do a better job educating the public in general and cancer survivors in particular about the options – yes: options, plural – available to men and women of different ages, incomes, interests and medical conditions.
Consider the alternative, which is nothing of the sort, because there already is a $15 trillion (in unmet needs) life insurance crisis in this country. That means, among U.S. households, the percentage of families with life insurance is at a 50-year low.
At least 70% of those households would be unable to meet everyday living expenses within a few months if a primary wage earner were to die today.
Bottom line: America's families are on the brink of a massive “Quiet Depression,” where there are no conventional warning signs – there are no alerts from the S&P 500 or the NASDAQ – that a catastrophe is about to strike.
Analyze these numbers from the perspective of a cancer patient or a survivor, who, though he or she may not be privy to certain industry facts, recognizes the obvious: That, in the event this disease were to recur, and without any savings to offset a multitude of debts, including expenses related to out-of-pocket medical costs, credit card bills, monthly mortgage payments, student loans, and the charges (food, gas and utilities) of everyday life, a cancer survivor – a cancer survivor without life insurance – would leave his or her family without the financial means to survive.
I return, therefore, to my earlier point about the false belief that a cancer patient or a cancer survivor is never able to get life insurance. In fact, there are many life insurance policies for applicants with one or more of the following types of cancer: Bladder, breast, cervical, colorectal, leukemia, prostate, skin and testicular cancer.
Each of these conditions is serious, but none of these ailments is always an automatic rejection from a life insurance underwriter.
The problem is, instead, the triumph of perception over reality. For example: Since every individual is different, and since an underwriter evaluates an application based on medical factors that relate exclusively to that specific applicant, denial of coverage – from only one life insurer – furthers the mistaken belief that a cancer survivor (any cancer survivor) is ineligible to buy life insurance.
Upon further review, that applicant may have a so-called captive life insurance agent, who only presents policies from a single insurer. That means an agent works for one company, thereby preventing that person from offering similar policies – perhaps even cheaper and more comprehensive types of coverage – to any and all clients, cancer survivors included.
In contrast, an independent life insurance agent has the freedom to shop rates from over 40 of America's top life insurance companies.
An independent agent is impartial; he or she has no ulterior motive, there is no secret incentive or special commission structure, regarding what that agent shows a potential customer.
It is the agent's job to help a cancer survivor through the underwriting process, and to find a policy that best meets that person's budget and financial goals.
The underwriting process is, as stated previously, a case-by-case analysis not only of the type of cancer a person has, but a review of so many additional factors – such as age, gender and a person's complete medical history – that influence whether an applicant will be approved or denied to get coverage.
Cancer survivors need agents who know.
For any survivor who may need more information we have put together a great resource just for you. You can read in detail about what it takes to get life insurance after cancer here.
Guide to Life Insurance for Cancer Patients and Survivors
We touch on many different cancer types, underwriting guidelines, and even give possible underwriting outcome. So feel free to take a look.