Finding life insurance in Georgia after by-pass surgery
If you are searching for affordable life insurance in Georgia after by-pass surgery, you must do one important thing. You must work with an independent agent who has many years working in the special risk marketplace.
You see, finding affordable coverage on life insurance in Georgia after by-pass surgery is more of an art than a science. Most typical agents have no clue on what questions to ask or what carriers might offer the most affordable rates.
But, if you work with an agent that has years of experience working in this niche market, you will save time and money on your life insurance.
Fortunately, you have landed on the right page. This article will give you the information you need in order to locate the best policy for your situation.
What do life companies look for when evaluating a by-pass risk?
I don’t think anyone would be surprised to learn that someone with a history of coronary artery disease would be looked at a bit closer for life insurance than someone that has never had that history.
In the United States, coronary artery by-pass surgery is a common procedure to treat coronary artery disease at all ages. Many years ago life insurance carriers would typically decline or highly rate someone with a history of by-pass surgery.
But today, with all the advances in medical technology that is no longer the case. In fact, in certain situations an insured may even qualify for standard rates depending on how much time has passed since the surgery.
They are typically two main types of by-passes that occur:
- The first type involves the saphenous vein being removed from the leg, and then attached into the aorta and coronary artery beyond the blocked artery.
- The second involves freeing one end of the internal mammary artery from the chest wall and attaching it to the coronary artery beyond the blockage.
Often times, when more than one vessel is being by-passed, both types of by-passes will be used. Indications for coronary by-pass grafting are:
- Intractable angina not responding to medical therapy
- Left main artery disease with greater than 50% stenosis
- Silent ischemia noted on testing with significant 3-vessel disease
- 3-vessel disease with impaired left ventricular function (ejection fraction less than 50%)
- 2 or 3 vessel disease if one of the vessels involved is the proximal left anterior descending
Now, all of this information is important to a life insurance carrier since it will help determine exactly how much if any extra rating above the standard rating should be added to the prospects premium. We will go into more detail on this a bit later.
Other factors that determine an insurance companies ratings on those looking for life insurance in Georgia after by-pass surgery include:
Complications from-
- Atrial Fibrillation
- excessive bleeding
- Permanent pacemaker
- Pulmonary embolism
- hepatitis B or C
- Stroke
- congestive heart failure
- Depression
Age also plays a huge determining factor in the final rating of heart by-pass prospects. Negative factors that could hurt a prospects chances at affordable rates could include: complications from surgery, recurrent angina, abnormal follow-up treadmill report, multiple cardiac risk factors present.
How the agent finds the best life insurance in Georgia after By-pass surgery?
So, we have determined that you must use an experienced agent. The agent must have knowledge of the special risk marketplace. The agent must represent multiple carriers. The agent must know how to negotiate with the carriers.
The common mistake that many novice agents make who have no experience working with individuals with pre-existing medical conditions is:
THEY HAVE THEIR CLIENTS APPLY TO MULTIPLE LIFE INSURANCE CARRIERS AND JUST HOPE ONE STICKS!!!
This is a critical error and can actually hurt your chances of finding affordable coverage. Let’s discuss why this is a bad move.
Believe it or not, but life insurance carriers are in the business to make money, not waste it. When you apply to a life insurance company there is a cost to the carrier to underwrite your policy.
Typically, they have to pay an assistant to set up the file and process it. They have to pay the actual underwriter to review the file, they have to pay the nurse who completes the medical exam, they have to pay the lab who does the blood testing, they may also have to pay a medical doctor on staff to review the file. It can be very expensive to underwrite one policy.
So, if you apply to a company and the company ends up declining your application then nobody wins. The company lost because they could not insure the risk and the insured lost because they have no policy.
But, one other thing that can hurt the insured is the medical information bureau or MIB. The MIB is a computer database which contains medical information pertaining to individuals who have applied for life insurance.
The major function of the MIB is so insurance companies can exchange information among each other to prevent fraud and abuse.
One of the first things that an insurance company does when you apply for life insurance is check the MIB file. This file will tell that particular company if you have applied for other policies with other insurance companies. It will also give details on how the other carriers reviewed your file.
So, let’s say your agent had you apply to 5 different life insurance companies and each one declined you for coverage, you would now have 5 hits on your MIB file.
You can see how another insurance company might not be too excited to spend the money underwriting a policy on you when you have already been declined 5 times. So, in other words you don’t want to just submit multiple applications to several companies.
Not only does it cost you time completing lots of paperwork and getting examined multiple times, but it could actually hurt your chances of finding a legitimate company that might insure your risk.
The best way to apply for coverage-
So, here is the best way to find the most affordable life insurance in Georgia after by-pass surgery. Your independent life specialist (who you have fortunately already located) will ask you questions about your medical history. He will find out as much information as possible then will personally speak to multiple life insurance carriers by phone.
These carriers will all be companies who specialize in underwriting life insurance in Georgia after by-pass surgery. This is done on an informal basis with no completed applications, or even a medical exam. We are just in the early stages of finding out what offers might be available based on the information we provide them.
On occasion, it may be necessary to take a trial application. This trial application authorizes the carriers to order and review your doctors medical records. Once this information is reviewed each carrier will then give a tentative quote on what they feel they can offer on your policy.
The agent(me) will then run the rates and determine which company would make the best formal offer if we did apply for this coverage.
Do you see how this makes so much more sense. This informal way of finding out what each company would offer without actually applying saves time and money from each party.
Now, if the prospect agrees that one of the tentative offers for coverage makes sense, then a formal application along with a medical exam will be completed.
Most of the time the informal tentative quote comes back exactly as the underwriter quoted. The insured is under no obligation to accept any offer until a policy has been issued and reviewed.
Questions to help evaluate coverage
As a special risk life agent it is my job to ask the right questions that an underwriter would need answered before making a tentative offer for coverage. Below are some of the questions that would need answered:
- Date of Birth
- Male or Female
- Height/weight
- Date of By-pass surgery
- How many vessels were by-passed
- Have you had heart attack, angioplasty, heart failure, valve surgery
- List of medications
- Had follow-up stress test since the by-pass, if so was it normal
- Any chest discomfort since by-pass
- Any history of high lipids, diabetes, high blood pressure, irregular heart beat, carotid disease, etc
- Used tobacco in last 5 years
- Any other major health problems
In addition to the answer to the questions above, it also important for the underwriter to know the amount of protection needed along with the type of coverage (term or whole life)
Understanding ratings for life insurance in Georgia after by-pass surgery
Evaluating an assigning a premium risk to a heart by-pass prospect is different for each individual. Typically, someone that had surgery 5 years ago and is in good health otherwise with no other factors could see a small rating on their policy. Standard offer for coverage is not out of the questions.
Table ratings-
Life insurance companies use something called table ratings to add additional risk to a policy. A person that qualifies for standard rates would simply be assigned the book standard rates for their particular age and amount of coverage. A table rating could be assigned as table A, table B, table C, etc. Each table class represents a 25% premium increase. Let’s look at an example:
Tom is a 55 year old male who had by-pass surgery 7 years ago. He has had no problems since the by-pass surgery. His height/weight is within normal limits, he is a non-tobacco user with good family history. His only medication is controlled blood pressure medication. Tom needs $100,000 of 20 year term life insurance.
After reviewing Toms medical history the life insurance carrier feels that can offer Tom a standard rate. Tom’s standard rate for a 20 year level term policy is $650 annually per years.
Joe is also a 55 year old male who had by-pass surgery 7 years ago. Joe has had no major problems since his by-pass surgery. But, Joe’s weight is about 20 lbs above the normal height/weight guideline. Joe also takes blood pressure medication, but also takes cholesterol medication. Joe needs $100,000 of 20 year term coverage as well.
After reviewing Joe’s file the insurance carriers assign a Table B rating to Joe’s policy. Table B would represent a 50% increase above the standard rate class since each table rating is 25%. So, Joe would have to pay 50% more in premium for the same coverage as Tom did.
These examples represent how life insurance companies classify based on an insured’s current and past medical history. It is important to remember that each life insurance carrier looks at health and lifestyle differently.
Therefore, it cannot be stressed enough. You must use an agent that can find the absolute lowest rates for life insurance in Georgia after by-pass surgery.
Conclusion-
If you have a need for life insurance and have a history of coronary by-pass surgery please contact us for a free evaluation. We can be reached at 1-888-393-9003 or mike@specialriskterm.com
