Life Insurance with Crohn’s Disease
If you suffer from Crohn’s disease and are in need of life insurance, you should be happy to know that affordable rates are available. Ultimately, your rate will depend on the severity of your particular condition. Life insurance companies focus on a few key factors when it comes to determining your health class rating for Crohn’s disease. The key to finding the best life insurance rates for Crohn’s disease is to shop your case to find the company that will view your particular situation most favorably. Here is what you need to know about life insurance with Crohn’s disease.
What is Crohn’s Disease?
Crohn’s disease belongs to a group of conditions known as Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD). It is a chronic inflammatory disease of the digestive tract. Crohn’s disease may affect as many as 700,000 Americans and is more prevalent among adolescents and young adults between the ages of 15 and 35 according to Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America. Symptoms of Crohn’s disease can include abdominal cramps and pain, persistent diarrhea and constipation. There are a several ways to treat Crohn’s disease. Medication coupled with dietary changes can be used to control symptoms associated with Crohn’s disease. In many cases though, surgery is required to remove affected areas of the gastrointestinal tract. For many with Crohn’s disease, multiple surgeries may be required during their lifetime.
Underwriting Crohn’s Disease
Crohn’s disease can be a bit unpredictable. Your final health class rating will depend on the severity of your particular case. Crohn’s disease that has been persistent for at least 15 years can increase the risk for other diseases such as colon cancer which is why underwriters want to know as much about your condition as possible. Here are some important facts you need to know about underwriting Crohn’s disease.
- Your medical records will be ordered. The underwriters will want to look at your medical records to determine the severity of your situation. This could prolong the underwriting process but will be absolutely necessary.
- If you’ve been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease within the past 6 months, your application will most likely be postponed until you have been treated for at least 6 months to 1 year.
- If surgery has been ordered by your doctor or just completed, your application will most likely be postponed for at least 6 months to a year after surgery to monitor your situation.
- Rates are better for those who are diagnosed at older ages such as 45 or older.
What Does the Insurance Company Need to Know About Your Crohn’s Disease?
- When were you diagnosed?
- What is the frequency and severity of episodes?
- Have you been hospitalized due your condition?
- What medications are you taking?
- Have you required surgery?
- What testing and treatment have you gone through?
- Do you have any other inflammatory bowel diseases?
- Is your weight stable?
- Do you have any other health issues?
What Health Rating Can You Expect with Crohn’s Disease?
As mentioned previously, your final health class rating will depend on the severity of your particular condition. This will be determined after your application, medical records and the results of your paramedical exam are reviewed. Here is an approximate guide for what you can expect for health class rating with Crohn’s disease.
Preferred – Preferred rates may be available if you’ve had a mild episode many years ago with no recent issues and no medications for many years.
Standard– Most people with well controlled Crohn’s disease will fall into the ‘Standard’ health class rating. If your Crohn’s disease has been stable for more than 3 years from diagnosis and it has been at least a year since your last attack, you will most likely qualify for ‘Standard’ health class. It will depend on whether or not you have needed any additional treatment or medication. If so, you could be pushed to a substandard health class.
Substandard – Moderate to severe cases of Crohn’s will be substandard or table rated. If your Crohn’s disease is controlled but you are taking medication and dealing with occasional flare ups, you will most likely be table rated. For moderate Crohn’s disease, you might qualify for ‘Table 2 to 4′. Multiple episodes in the last year or 3 or more episodes in the past 2 years could put you at ‘Table 6-8’.
Decline – If you are having frequent attacks that require hospitalization, multiple surgeries or if any kind of abnormality has been found in an endoscopy or colonoscopy, you will most likely be declined. In this case, you might only qualify for guaranteed issue life insurance.
The Best way to Shop for Life Insurance with Crohn’s Disease
If you have Crohn’s disease or any other IBD and you need life insurance, don’t go it alone. We can shop your case to find you the rates available for life insurance with Crohn’s disease. We know which companies are a bit more liberal when it comes to underwriting Crohn’s disease.Here is our process for shopping your case.
Complete Crohn’s Disease Questionnaire – We have a Crohn’s disease questionnaire that asks for all of the important information underwriters want to know about your case. We will then informally shop your case to multiple insurers to find you the best tentative offer. The offers are tentative based on the outcome of the full underwriting process, but will give you an idea of what you’re up against before filling out an application.
Cover Letter – Most agents don’t do this, but we will also write a cover letter on your behalf. A cover letter allows us to shine a light on your positive lifestyle and health attributes that should be considered when reviewing your case. An informative cover letter could mean the difference between receiving a ‘Standard’ rating versus a ‘Substandard’ rating in some cases.
Once we have determined the best insurance company to work with for your case, we can then proceed by filling out an application and going through the full underwriting process. If all goes well during the underwriting process, your application will be approved and you can accept coverage. If not, we will do what we can to find you the best alternative. No matter what, we will work hard to get you the best possible rate available for your case. If you have Crohn’s disease or any other IBD, we can help. We shop over 40 of the top life insurance companies to get you the best rate. If you have any questions, feel free to call us at (888) 687-9444 or email us at info@archstoneagency.com.
About Us
Archstone Insurance Services, LLC is an independent agency that shops over 40 of the top life insurance carriers to provide huge savings on life insurance coverage for our clients. We are happy to answer any questions you might have about any of the insurance products we offer, your planning needs or your existing coverage. Feel free to call us directly at (888) 687-9444 or email us at info@archstoneagency.com.
