Can I get affordable life insurance with thyroid cancer?
Individual’s that suffer from thyroid cancer may think affordable life insurance is hard to obtain. Fortunately, you have landed on the right page. We are experts in finding the most affordable rates for individuals looking for life insurance with thyroid cancer.
Unfortunately, the incidence of thyroid cancer is increasing. This could be due to increased detection and clinical awareness. When looking for life insurance with thyroid cancer it is imperative that you work with an agent that specializes in this area.
The agent plays a vital role in finding the company that will offer the most competitive rate in the marketplace. The agent who understands this market will already know the company’s that specialize in underwriting life insurance with thyroid cancer.
This will save the client not only time, but money as well in lower premiums.
What information is needed to find affordable life insurance with thyroid cancer?
It is important to understand what the underwriter will be looking for when evaluating the risk for life insurance with thyroid cancer.
Knowing the type of thyroid cancer you have been diagnosed with and knowing some additional information will help you in relaying this to your agent. Here are some basic sub types of thyroid cancer:
- Papillary– this is the most common type. Papillary, papillary-follicular, and follicular are considered “differentiated” and have a good prognosis, particularly at ages 20 to 40. Unfavorably pathological sub types of thyroid cancer include tall cell, columnar, solid (trabecular), clear cell, and diffuse sclerosing.
- Follicular– cancer that is “widely invasive” as opposed to “minimally invasive” through the capsule or showing vascular invasion tends to be more aggressive at presentation. Hurthle and insular cancer are more aggressive forms of follicular cancer.
- Medullary– cancer appears sporadically, as part of familial medullary cancer, or as part of multiple endocrine neoplasia. Stage I medullary has a good prognosis while higher stages do not.
- Anaplastic– type of any thyroid cancer has a grave prognosis.
When an underwriter is evaluating the risk for life insurance with thyroid cancer they are typically wanting to know the staging of the cancer. This is usually found in the pathology report. This report gives the underwriter valuable information when determining which risk class to place an individual.
The TNM is the most common staging. This stands for tumor, nodes, metastasis. An example of a staging on a thyroid pathology report may look like this:
- Stage T1- less than 2 cm
- Stage T2- 2-4 cm
- Stage T3- great than 4 cm, but limited to the thyroid or with minimal extra-thyroid extension
- Stage T4- tumor of any size that extends beyond the capsule into the subcutaneous soft tissues and nearby structures.
- NO- no nodes
- N1a- Nodes involved in pre-trachea, para-trachea, and pre-laryngeal regions.
- N1b- Nodes involved in cervical or superior mediastinal regions
- MO- No distant metatases
- M1- With distant metatases
The rating from an insurance company for thyroid cancer is based on the cell type and the stage or TNM classification. The risk class is worse with higher stages and better for lower stage such as T1 or T2. Papillary thyroid cancer is the most common and has a good prognosis.
Other areas of information that will be needed to determine the risk for life insurance with thyroid cancer include but are not limited to:
- Treatment- surgical excision(with or without node and neck exploration) followed by any radioisotope? For small tumors many times surgery is adequate.
- Surveillance- lifetime follow-up with high resolution ultrasound. Many times one year after treatment levels of thryglobulin are almost undetectable.
Based on the insured’s age, staging level, treatment and followup history, an underwriter will place the insured in a risk class corresponding to the information obtained. As an example:
A 35 year old female diagnosed with thyroid cancer stage T1 with surgery and complete follow-up and no re-occurrence along with no other medical history would typically fall into the standard risk category. Again, it is important that an individual looking for life insurance with thyroid history only work with an experienced agent in order to get the lowest rate.
This standard risk class would not include any extra premium charge for the thyroid cancer history. If a thyroid cancer history is more high risk or more recent then the underwriter could charge an extra premium know as a flat extra. A flat extra is an extra charge per thousand of insurance protection added to the standard rate.
An example of a flat extra may be $5.00 per thousand of coverage for 3 years. So, an insured would be required to pay an additional charge on top of the standard risk already being charge.
But, it is important to remember that this is a temporary flat extra and this extra premium charge would come off the rate after 3 years. The 3 years covers the time frame that the underwriter feels warrants the additional risk.
If applying for say $100,000 of coverage, the insured would be charged an additional $500 per year for the first 3 years of the policy.
Here are the questions that an insured looking for life insurance with thyroid cancer should be ready to provide in order to find the most affordable rate:
- Male or Female?
- Date of Birth?
- Any tobacco use ever? If stopped, when?
- Date of thyroid cancer diagnosis?
- What type of cancer? I.E. Papillary or papillary follicular, Follicular, Medullary, Anaplastic, Hurthle?
- What was the stage of the tumor?
- What treatments have you had? I.E. Surgery, chemotherapy, external radiation?
- Is there any history of metastatic disease?
- Any additional studies been done? I.E. Radioisotope scans, ultrasound, thyroglobulin, calcitonin? If so, when?
- Are you currently on any medications?
- Any other major health problems
- Amount of coverage needed?
- Type of coverage? I.E. Term life or permanent protection
With the above information, your agent can go out into the marketplace, speak to the underwriters and find the lowest offer avaialble. You do not want to apply to different insurance companies. This only hurts your ability to get the best offer. This also flags your medical information bureau file.
If you are looking for the most affordable rate for life insurance with thyroid cancer, contact us at 1-888-393-9003 or e-mail Mike Raines at mike@specialriskterm.com
