Due to the ever increasing number of people diagnosed with asthma in the US, buying an appropriate life insurance policy which will help cover the disease is a crucial decision. The rate of asthma patients has doubled in the past 20 years, due to the increasingly high air pollution levels. Thus, the policyholders as well as the insurance companies are all the more concerned about providing insurance covers to the asthma patients. The asthmatic condition and its severity, is the deciding factor for the premium payments. People with higher degree of asthma are required to shell out greater sums of money than those with minor asthma condition. If you are an asthma patient it is advised to compare the different life insurance policies before deciding which one to buy.
The US National Medical institute has set up a few checkpoints or the treatment conditions, which are often considered by insurers for deciding the rates of your insurance premium. These include:
- Total absence or the lower degree of coughing, sneezing and chest tightness.
- Participation in physical activities without short breaths or other asthma symptoms.
- Good sleep at night with no presence of asthma condition.
- No absence from work due to asthma.
- No visits to hospitals due to asthma.
If the above conditions are met the insurers do not increase your premium rates. Further, the insurers also include the results of the peak flow meter tests to determine the severity of your asthmatic condition. The peak flow meter test is a detailed test to determine the breathing conditions of the patients.
A few insurers use the information about the frequency of medicine administration and the types of pills recommended by your doctor to know the severity of your condition. The rate of life insurance is substantially elevated by the insurer in case you have a higher degree of severity of the disease. However, patients who have led a healthy lifestyle in the past three years and meet the above listed checklist are likely to get the life insurance cover at normal rates.
Patients with recent history of no asthmatic episode can apply for the “standard” rates in the life insurance policy issued by their life insurer. Similarly, patients who display the lack of symptoms in past 3 years or more can easily get the “preferred” rates for their insurance policy.
The rule of thumb that operates in the life insurance market is, the more serious your latest asthma attack was the more likely are you to end up paying a higher rate for the policy. Alternatively, the patients who have recently displayed more severe symptoms of asthma have to wait longer before they end up finding the most favorable life insurance policy, with lesser payments. In most cases where the patient was admitted to the emergency due to the severity of asthma condition, they need to display longer periods of stability than normal cases.
People who display regular, less serious and current asthma sequence make their purchase of life insurance tough. These asthma episodes are suggestive of your failing medical treatment and need to change the medical help that you are currently seeking.
Thus for the ease of patients, the insurance companies usually divide the asthma patients in various categories depending upon the nature of their disease and the severity. These are as follows:
- Seasonal asthma: The occurrence of asthma condition on the change of season is termed as seasonal asthma. Depending on the severity of your last asthma episode you might pay a rate from “preferred” to “standard” in this case.
- Mild asthma: The asthma condition with less frequent attacks and no cases of hospitalization are termed as mild asthma. People suffering with mild asthma show occasional asthmatic problems. The medications in this case are fewer, thus the insurers might give you the “preferred” rate in this condition.
- Moderate asthma: It is the condition where the frequency of your asthma is higher than the mild one, and there are occasional episodes of hospitalization in relation with such attacks. People with moderate asthma showing continuous signs of improvement or at least no further severity are charged “standard” rates for their insurance policy.
- Severe asthma: People with severe asthma are frequently hospitalized due to severe asthma attacks, and are often given hard medications such as steroids. Each patient with severe asthma is dealt on one to one basis instead of fixing one common rate in this category. Depending upon the severity and the number of times the person was hospitalized in past one year, the insurers fix their rates, which are typically 25% to 100% higher than the standard rates. In some cases the rates might be whooping 200% higher than the “standard” rate.
Smokers with asthma are likely to pay more for their insurance policy. The policies for smokers are very expensive typically twice or thrice the rate for non-smokers because of the addition of charges for smoking as well as asthma. Premise behind this is, smokers are likely to develop severity in asthma condition. However, if the smoker decides to quit smoking the insurers usually require at least a year of non-smoking history before reducing the rates of premium.
In case of healthy smokers with no history of asthma, are required to pay bi-annual visits to the doctor so that your health conditions can be monitored. Moreover, they are required to list all the medicines that you are taking for any purpose to know your health condition and subsequently, apply the various insurance rates pertaining to your medical condition.
Bottom-line, due to the nature of this disease patients are required to pay a higher premium for their life insurance cover. However, a thorough research of the several different insurance companies and their rates depending upon your disease condition is the best thing to do before investing in one such insurance plan. Usually the rates vary from insurer to insurer for same asthma severity.
