High Blood Pressure And High Cholesterol Can Equal High Life Insurance Premiums
High blood pressure and high cholesterol, two health conditions that often go hand in hand, can do more than threaten your quality of life. They can also threaten your ability to insure your life. When insurance companies evaluate your candidacy, they look at a variety of factors in determining how risky it is to insure you. Yes, you’re looked at as an investment, which can feel a little dehumanizing. But insurance is a for profit industry like any other, and heart disease accounts for 29 percent of U.S. deaths, making it the number one fatality of Americans. Therefore, you can expect an insurance company to be very interested in your blood pressure and cholesterol readings.
In addition to your blood pressure and cholesterol levels, insurers also figure in your weight, age, whether or not you smoke and a variety of other heart related health factors before they quote you a premium. Anything that reflects poorly on your long-term heart health is called a risk factor, and the more risk factors that you rack up, the higher your monthly premium. However, if you have a heart conditions that’s “under control”, you can expect lower premiums than if the condition were unmonitored, even when you have more than one health condition.
For example, while having controlled hypertension still won’t qualify you for preferred plus premiums, it could mean that you qualify for preferred premiums as opposed standard premiums, which can run as much as 40 percent higher. While it might sound obvious, one of the best ways to qualify for lower life insurance premiums is to follow your doctor’s orders. This includes more than just following your physician’s diet and lifestyle recommendations. You should also be sure to take any medications that your physician prescribes. If insurance companies discover that you don’t fill your high blood pressure medication, for example, it could technically count as “uncontrolled high blood pressure”, raising your premiums.
No matter what medication you take, always be sure to list it on your life insurance application. Some people believe that listing medication will make them appear unhealthy to insurers when, often times, the exact opposite is true. Insurers feel confident about applicants who are willing to address their risk factors with medication, and they typically care more about your health at the time of application than they do about your past health. You can also feel confident about listing your heart medications considering that they usually have few side effects, which makes insurers feel confident that you’ll keep taking the medication.
So, if you’re following your doctor’s orders and controlling your heart condition with medication, you’ll be sitting pretty on your life insurance application. But there remains one possible obstacle to achieving preferred premiums that everyone should be prepared for: the undiagnosed heart condition. Because hypertension and high cholesterol produce little if any symptoms, many people find out only after their insurance medical exam that they have them. If you encounter this situation, take the statement of the insurer’s medical findings and present it to your physician. Then, once the conditions have been medicated for a few months, you can usually successfully petition the insurer for lower rates.
While your heart health is important to your longevity, it’s also important to your ability to receive affordable, long-term life insurance. If in doubt about heart health, consult with your physician before applying for life insurance.
In order to receive affordable life insurance, your heart needs to be in reasonably good health. While conditions such as high blood pressure and hypertension can drive up the cost of premiums, keeping these conditions under control by taking medication can result in lower premiums than expected. Visit Insure.com for the best Life Insurance Quotes available today.
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