Life Insurance Health Questions

One way that insurance companies can help assess you and provide you with a list of their products is by using life health insurance questions that are designed to ascertain your current lifestyle and health habits.

Insurance companies use these simple life insurance health questions instead of medical examinations as part of your requirement in buying an insurance policy. A lot of people prefer this simple and straightforward measure of their qualifications for a particular coverage rather than the equivalent physical testing that can be quite cumbersome.

Life Insurance health questions can range from simple questions that include physical details such as height, weight, and gender, as well as questions answerable by yes or no such as tobacco use, existing medical condition and hazardous jobs. Answers to these questions become the basis for qualification to a particular program or plan that you are interested in.

Of course, these queries are generalizations, meaning, when you consult with the agent, the information you provide can give them a faster assessment of your pre-qualification, but they can still offer you potential products that are not related to the results at all. In the end, the product that you will go for will depend on your preferences, willingness to meet the premiums and other details of the policy.

Does this mean that life insurance health questions are insignificant?

Life insurance health questions remain a reliable tool, even when they do not provide the full health and lifestyle information about an individual. As with other situations in real life, these health questions are used as a gauge – an assessment tool of your current habits, and capabilities. At the same time, the result provides the insurance company with a potential overview of the risks that are posed by your lifestyle to untimely demise, which will ultimately affect the finances of the company who will be shelling out the coverage benefits to your family and loved ones.

Note that in policies that cover critical illnesses, the insurance company may require you to take a medical exam even when you have filled out a health questionnaire. The reason for this is that pre-disposition to these illnesses will already make the company liable to pay out for the benefit in the event that you contract the illness. Thus, companies would want to know beforehand if you have existing conditions that can lead up to these illnesses. Such a scenario can also have an effect on the premiums of the policy or make it harder for you to get a particular type of coverage.

Insurance companies will require plan applicants to have good health. For the insurance company and in general, the term good health would refer to non-application of maintenance medicine for physical conditions or illnesses, non- heavy smoking and non-absence from work (for lengthy periods, like around two weeks) that can be attributed to a health condition.

These basic requirements even out the playing field for companies because like us, they also aspire for minimal financial risk. If you were in the insurance business and most of your clients were dying in succession and within their plan coverage, this would mean that you are required to provide the pay out on their policies to their families. This would mean that as a business, you could lose a lot of money.

Does this mean that people with handicap and those that suffer from chronic issues like hypertension cannot get coverage?

No. Getting an insurance coverage is just like getting a health card – it is a right that everyone willing to make the premiums can have. However, to balance the odds, insurance companies also have the right to raise premiums for a particular coverage, based on factors that also pose a valid financial risk for the business. This balancing act is required in order to make the general situation fair for the insured and the insurer.

So if you are planning on getting insurance, ensure that you answer the life insurance health questions as accurately as you can. Do not think that these questions are irrelevant; your agent will be basing your assessment on the answers you provide. Give accurate information and be rewarded with more focused products that the agent will provide to fit your short- or long-term life goals.