Does Hepatitis B affect life insurance?
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Does Hepatitis B affect life insurance?
Your health plays a major role in determining whether or not you are eligible for standard fully underwritten life insurance. If you are about to start the application process, knowing how specific medical conditions can affect your rates is a must. Even a single application denial can affect your records through the Medical Information Bureau and make it difficult to qualify for any quality cover...
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Your health plays a major role in determining whether or not you are eligible for standard fully underwritten life insurance. If you are about to start the application process, knowing how specific medical conditions can affect your rates is a must. Even a single application denial can affect your records through the Medical Information Bureau and make it difficult to qualify for any quality coverage. This is why you should know your current health condition and what insurers look for prior to ever going from a quote to an insurance application. Start comparing life insurance rates now by using our FREE tool above!
Life insurance underwriters who review applications, verify information and assess the mortality of an applicant will look at several different health factors. They will review your prior medical records, answers to the questions that you provide and results from your physical lab work to get a glimpse at your life and physical and mental health.
Can you find an insurer to insure you with Hepatitis B?
All health conditions, no matter how minor they seem to you, will affect your application. It is crucial that you are open and honest if you have been diagnosed with a medical condition like Hepatitis B.
You might think it is best to leave this off of your application, but knowingly choosing not to provide this information can lead to denial with a company that may have approved you otherwise.
It is possible to get approved for a medically underwritten policy after being diagnosed with Hepatitis B, but whether or not your policy will be issued depends on how long you have had the condition and how severe it is. Read on, and learn more about why the condition affects your life insurance rates, what lifestyle factors are considered as well, and how to find the best policy from the best carrier.
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Why does Hepatitis B affect your life insurance rates?
When an insurance company in the life insurance marketplace offers financial protection to an individual in the event of their death, their primary goal is to profit. The only way for a carrier to provide is to research the applicants and find out what their life expectancy is and what they likelihood of passing away within the policy period is. If their life expectancy is lower than the average person within their gender group or demographic, they may pay higher rates or even face denial of the application all together.
If you would like to find out what your life expectancy is predicted to be based your age, gender, and lifestyle choices, use the basic calculator used by underwriters. Unfortunately, the calculator does not consider every medical condition and how it can take away from the number of years that you have left. This is why underwriters must use several tools and statistics when they are looking at the big picture.
How does the condition affect your life expectancy?
Hepatitis B can have a direct impact on your life expectancy if it is left untreated. As an infection that can affect the liver for either a short period of time or over the long term, rating an applicant who has the infection can be extremely difficult for underwriters.
There are two different types of Hepatitis B: acute hepatitis B and chronic hepatitis B. When adults are diagnosed with an acute infection, they will have it for a short period of time and it will get better on its own. In some cases, especially when babies or children are diagnosed with the infection, they are found to have a chronic infection that lasts long-term and can lead to serious liver damage.
Because liver damage can lead to liver failure and death, those who have chronic cases of the infection must seek frequent treatment and demonstrate that they are taking care of themselves if they want insurance. Still, some insurers will not even take on high-risk insured’s who have chronic Hepatitis B and are managing it with medication. This is why you should do your homework before you apply for the first insurer to offer you a low price quote.
What factors will underwriters consider in the decision process?
As soon as you list Hepatitis B on your application or the underwriter receives a positive blood test, your application will be seen as one the presents a lot more risk than the average person. Because of this, the underwriter will delve deeper and consider additional factors to decide if the company is able to issue your policy. Some of the factors that could lead to approval or denial include:
- How old you were when diagnosed
- Average LFT readings
- Types of treatments and medications you have received
- Whether or not you have cirrhosis or fibrosis of the liver
- Frequency of follow-up doctor visits
- Medications you currently take and how often you take them
- Other test results
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Factors That May Make You a Higher Risk
If you were diagnosed as a child, you are a higher risk than someone diagnosed in adulthood because your case is automatically classified as chronic. You are also a higher risk when you are not being seen by a doctor regularly or if your pharmacy records do not show that you fill medication prescriptions often.
If you are taking medications and the medications have side effects that can lead to other serious problems, this will be considered.
Underwriters can see all of this and use this in their determination, so it is important to be honest and upfront instead of trying to mislead the company.
How To Move Your Life Insurance Application Through the Process
Underwriting periods can feel very lengthy, but when a medical condition is a cause of concern the process can be delayed. It takes, on average, about 30 days for an underwriter to order tests and records and review them when the applicant has a clean bill of health. When there are medical issues, you can tack on 30, 60 or 90 more days. If you would like to push your application along, you can be a big help by doing the following:
- Information the Underwriters Need
The best thing to do is be honest. In addition to being honest, you need to be as detailed as possible from the moment you fill out your application. You should list your condition, the full name of the medications that you take, names of treatments you have done in the past, the date of your last visit, your physicians name and address and when your next appointment is. When you answer all of these questions on your own, you do not have to play a back and forth game of phone tag to provide additional information. The underwriter will also see that you have nothing to hide.
- Call Your Doctor to Avoid Records Delays
If you look through all of the forms that you will be asked to sign when you are submitting an application, you will see that you authorize your doctor and other medical institutions to release your medical records. If you do not sign this form, the insurer will not even give your application a second glance. You might not have a problem signing the form right away, but doctor offices have been known to misplace or delay the process by taking weeks to send records that could be sent in minutes.
A life underwriter has several files to manage and may not even check-up on missing records for a month. If you want to prevent delays, you should call your doctor office and ask them to send the records immediately. By doing this, your forms will not get lost in the shuffle and left to deal with when time is running out.
- Live a Healthy Lifestyle
If you do not have any serious liver damage and you are treating your chronic Hepatitis B, it is very possible to live a quality life. In order to live a happy and healthy life, you need to take up healthy habits. Being a smoker, a heavy drinker or overweight can really have a dramatic effect on your rates when you have a medical condition. Someone without a diagnosis may not have problems getting insurance as a smoker, but someone who already has issues will. Be sure to cut the bad habits, stay active, and eat right, and you can improve your risk classification.
The premiums for a policyholder who has Hepatitis B vary from company to company. Your age, the type of insurance you want, your diagnosis, family history and habits will all affect your ability to find an affordable policy. If you would like to find the best life insurance policy from a top-rated insurer, you can use an online rate comparison tool and get personal quotes right off of the Internet. Be sure to research partnering carriers before you rely on price. Then, enter your information and compare the insurance rates before you get to filling out your application for coverage. Start comparing life insurance rates now by using our FREE tool below!
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Does Hepatitis B affect life insurance?
Your health plays a major role in determining whether or not you are eligible for standard fully underwritten life insurance. If you are about to start the application process, knowing how specific medical conditions can affect your rates is a must. Even a single application denial can affect your records through the Medical Information Bureau and make it difficult to qualify for any quality cover...