Just a little education; life insurance policy (for those who don't know) doesn't mean you're going to die soon, NO.
You probably need life insurance; if you have small children, a mortgage, a spouse or family member (aged mother, father. . .) who’s dependent on your income—or any person who would be inconvenienced financially if you were hit by a bustomorrow. Though no one prays for this.
LET'S LEAVE THE DIGRESSION AND STRAIGHT TO BUSINESS
This post isn't about the topic of 'Life Insurance'. There are over a thousand websites that can give you info on that.
Insurance companies consider and examine some factors which will determine the kind and magnitude of coverage you need, and these will be included in the policy agreement.
There are a number of factors, but this post covers some of the major health factors, and these include:
#1: YOUR WEIGHT AND CHOLESTEROL LEVEL
Why your weight? Being overweight not just obese increases mortality rate in so many ways. Being overweight, caused by excess body fat, increases the risk of many health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers.
According to the American Cancer Society, estimates show that excess body fat is linked to endometrial cancer, esophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer, kidney cancer, gallbladder cancer, breast cancer and colorectal cancer.
Also, if your cholesterol level is high, it can pose great threat to your health, and hence, makes you susceptible to shorter lifespan.
The insurance companies calculate all these summed up. They know these factors decreases life expectancy, hence, this automatically increases the insurance premium.
If you can choose to sustain a normal body weight and remain physically active, then you'd probably be called for a review.
#2: CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES
This includes high blood pressure and other heart issues, which can lead to early death.
Some insurance companies will write a life insurance policy with an exclusion for heart conditions. So they’ll give you insurance, but exclude if the person dies of a heart condition.
Again, if you have high blood pressure, but it’s controlled by medication, you should have no major problems. That means you can’t show up to your insurance exam with high blood pressure.
But if your blood pressure is going high unwatched, then your bill will also go high untouched.
For more on High blood pressure and how you can prevent it, READ HERE.
#3: TOBACCO USE, ALCOHOL DRINKING AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE
According to the CDC, smoking harms nearly every organ of the body, causes many diseases and reduces the health of smokers in general.
Smoking causes more deaths each year than all of
these combined: HIV, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries and firearm-related incidents. So many people die prematurely from cigarette smoking every year.
Don't be so surprised that the insurance companies have these facts at their finger tips. They'll simply present it to you alongside your huge bill.
Excessive alcohol consumption and substance abuse are not left out of this too.
#4: DEPRESSION
If you’re taking medication for an ongoing depressive condition (meaning it’s more than just a temporary state due to, say, a loved one’s death), you will probably see higher rates because of it.
The issue is that in a worst-case scenario people may jump off roofs when they’re depressed. The mortality effects of certain medications can also be a concern.
As someone said,"getting a life insurance policy should come along with the best mood ever, or else, you might not smile that much to the bank".
#5: FAMILY HISTORY
This is another area of concern. Insurance companies enquire if your family has any serious or hereditary conditions that could cause an early death, and this is probably going to hike up your rates.
Chief among those conditions is cardiovascular disease (particularly if a parent died early from it), cancer and diabetes.
The good thing about this is just that you can negotiate your plan, like if you have some great explanation, e.g your dad smoked two packs a day and you’ve never smoked in your life, etc.
#6: OTHER DISEASE CONDITIONS
The presence of disease conditions such as cancer, diabetes, asthma, kidney diseases, etc, would normally mean the person has a shorter time to live compared to someone who's free of these.
Cancer is one disease that even worsen the situation in this case. A cancer patient or someone with cancer history will likely never qualify for the best life insurance rates.
Also, if you've been hospitalised in recent times over the issues of your health or these conditions, what it might mean to them is that you aren't taking good care of yourself enough, and this will aggravate the hiking of the price too.
#7: YOUR OCCUPATION
If your job is the type that exposes you to great health risk or death, then there's every likelihood that you'll suffer this blow too.
Jobs like driving race cars, handling explosives, flying planes, working in a mining site, chemical factories, or working in a factory (which make use of dangerous heavy machines) etc. Also some insurers raise rates for firefighters, police officers (or men in the force generally).
But if your job is the type that involves just pen and papers, then you don't have to fret over life insurance policy rate hike.
TAKE NOTE!!!
If you've noticed carefully, the aim of this post is not about life insurance policy itself, but about YOU. It's about you maintaining healthy lifestyle; it's about you watching what goes into your body; it's about you watching the kind of dangers you expose yourself to on a daily basis.
It's about YOU LIVING HEALTHY.
#StayAlive #StayHealthy #LiveLonger!!!
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