Most
people think of the usual suspects when
considering issues that might impact
their ability to get term life insurance
coverage. Diabetes, high blood
pressure, cholesterol, you know. The
issues that many if not most older adult
American are dealing with. Mental
health rarely comes up as a potential
concern but unfortunately the term life
carriers have a different opinion on
this. Let's take a look at how mental
health issues can affect term life
insurance qualification.
In
many ways, health care's treatment of
mental health issues is finally entering
the new century. Aside from stigma
associated with mental health issues,
the separation of mind and body goes all
the way back to Descartes.
Anatomically, we're starting to realize
that it's all one interconnected
system. Health care's treatment of
mental illness has been treated
separately and less well until recently
with the advent of Mental Health Parity
bills. California's passage of Mental
Health parity in 1999 was a big step
towards eventual nationwide adoption
soon to follow. On one hand, the
treatment of mental health issues has
reached parity but unfortunately,
underwriting and qualification were soon
to follow. Mental health and the
resulting treatment and medication can
be a factor in terms of qualifying for
coverage. This is true for term life
insurance as well although the basis is
different.
Health care is concerned more with the
cost associated with mental health care
treatment and also the relative
popularity of the brand name medications
typically used on a maintenance basis.
Term life insurance qualification is not
so concerned with these costs since the
term life carrier will not responsible
for these costs. So the real question
is why would term life insurance
carriers be concerned with mental health
when establishing eligibility (and more
importantly, cost) of a term life
insurance policy?
There
are a few concerns. Obviously, the very
serious mental health conditions such as
schizophrenia and bi-polar can
significantly impact a person's
morbidity (health status) and mortality
(chance of passing away at a certain age
or earlier age). The issue today
however is that we see a pretty impact
on the offered term life insurance rate
for the much more common mental health
issues such as anxiety and depression
even when those conditions are fairly
well treated and stable with maintenance
medications. So what's going on here?
Essentially, there are two issues. One
is the possibility or probability that a
person will stop taking their
medications and the underlying mental
health issue will re-surface or that a
mental health issue will just escalate
over time or later in life. You could
apply the same argument to cholesterol
and high blood pressure which are
equally treated with maintenance
medications. Of course the medications
themselves have side affects (have you
seen the disclaimer on tv ads lately?)
which can impact mortality directly
(stroke, aneurysm, etc) but another
driver is just the medical realization
that the brain is unto an island from
the body.
Mental health is health just specific to
a different organ. If a mental health
issues isn't treated (or sufficiently
treated), there might be other health
related issues that coincide with mental
health issues such as tobacco, alcohol,
or drug use. Ultimately, the life
insurance carriers look at risk and risk
associations. This is the downside.
Common mental health issues such as
anxiety and depression can have a
significant impact on the rates offered
to a term life insurance applicant if
approved. We've seen offers which can
be 2-3 times the original quote based on
these conditions alone. There may be
better options or carriers for
particular situations so make sure to
let us know up front of any mental
health issues so we can work to find the
best fit and best term life rate for
your situation.
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