Can High-Risk Individuals Get Life Insurance?

Life insurance companies determine your life expectancy and premium costs by evaluating your overall health, including pre-existing conditions and whether you have a dangerous job or lifestyle.

If your evaluation categorizes you under a high-risk applicant, your premium price may increase since it would be a higher financial risk for the life insurance company to cover you. This doesn’t mean high-risk individuals are uninsurable. According to the American Council of Life Insurers, fewer than one in 200 life insurance applications are denied coverage.

If you have a higher-than-average mortality risk due to your health and lifestyle, you’re considered a high-risk insurance applicant. Most life insurance companies will require you to take a medical exam to help determine what level risk class you’re in.

The EKG is not always required. Typically, it is only necessary if you’re over the age of 60 with potential heart conditions. During your appointment, you must also disclose any pre-existing conditions or relevant family health history.

Having a serious pre-existing condition makes you a medical risk for life insurance companies. According to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, up to 129 million Americans are affected by a pre-existing health condition.

It is important to be honest when applying for a life insurance policy and disclose any health issues or pre-existing conditions. If you lie on an application, you’d be committing insurance fraud and you will be denied without a death benefit.

Keep documentation of your treatment plan or medications you take for a pre-existing condition. If you provide this information during the application process, it may help lower your premium price.

Dangerous occupations can put you at risk for serious injury or death. If you work one of the jobs listed below, you are likely considered a high-risk applicant.

Of the high-risk jobs listed above, logging work was rated the most dangerous job. A 2020 report from the Industrial Safety & Hygiene News stated that logging workers had 111 fatal injuries out of 100,000 workers compared to police officers with 14 fatal injuries out of 100,000 workers.

Some high-risk jobs offer group life insurance to their employees for little to no cost. If you’re in a dangerous line of work and worry about getting denied life insurance coverage, ask your employer if this option is available to you.

If you have a history with drug and alcohol addiction, hold a bad driving record or engage with dangerous activities, then you are considered to have a high-risk lifestyle.

Life insurance companies can be more lenient on raising premiums if time has passed since your lifestyle risk challenges. For example, if you have one DUI ticket from 10 years ago, you’ll be more insurable than someone with three DUIs in the last year.

Your lifestyle choices influence what insurance risk class you’re placed in, which also determines your premium costs.

Insurance risk classes are categories that help insurers determine policy premiums based on health and lifestyle. Some insurance policies have different qualifications or names for each class. For example, the preferred plus category is also known as super preferred at some insurance companies.

If you qualify for the preferred plus category, that means you’re in optimal health with opportunity for low premiums. Majority of high-risk individuals fall into the standard risk class.

Time constraints on coverage vary by risk class. For example, to be considered preferred plus, you must have no history of tobacco within five years of signing up for the policy. But with standard risk class, you must be tobacco free for one year instead of five.

If you’re a high-risk applicant, you may still be able to buy a life insurance policy. Every life insurance company varies in coverage, making some better suited and more affordable for high-risk applicants than others.

Some life insurance companies offer limited policies tailored to high-risk applicants. For example, American International Group (AIG) and Mutual of Omaha both offer guaranteed issue life insurance.

An independent agent can help you get quotes from multiple insurance companies, which may increase your chance for approval.

Additionally, if you provide detailed information about your health and how you are receiving treatment, this will show insurance companies you’re responsible and safer to approve.

You should also avoid going out of the country before trying to sign up for a life insurance policy, since it might postpone your application process.

If you fall under one of the standard risk classes, then life insurance companies will use the table rating system to determine your premium rate based on health and lifestyle factors. The table rating is categorized by letters A-J or numbers 1-10. Each level adds 25% to the standard premium price.

If you are rated the lowest table rating — J or 10 — then your standard premium increases by 250%.

High-risk applicants can save money on a policy a few different ways.

Start by doing your research. Many life insurance companies offer a quote tool online to help you determine how much your premium will be. Compare a few different quotes to find out which rate class you fall under and where you can get the lowest premium.

In addition, it’s best practice to get insured as soon as you can. If you wait, your costs increase each year you age.

You can also request a reconsideration from your provider if your overall health has improved. This will likely give you a higher table rating, and in turn, lower your premiums.