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Why you should trust Insure.com
If you have recently been diagnosed with cancer or have a history of cancer, your eligibility for life insurance becomes complicated. While your options may be more limited than someone without a history of cancer, there are still plenty of life insurance policies available.
In most cases, cancer patients only qualify for a guaranteed life insurance policy with limited coverage and restricted payouts during the initial years. However, cancer survivors who recovered and have been in remission for at least 5 years can get a traditional term or permanent life insurance policy, depending on the severity of their diagnosis.
Can you get life insurance if you have cancer?
If you are currently undergoing cancer treatment, then you likely won’t be eligible for traditional coverage — instead, you may have to opt for final expense insurance. Final expense insurance offers a generally low amount of coverage, but still provides funds to cover medical expenses or a funeral.
If you’re in remission, then insurers may offer you traditional coverage, but it depends on a few factors:
- The date you were diagnosed
- The type of cancer you had
- The stage of cancer you had
- Your treatment history
Before they underwrite a policy, most insurers will use guidelines from the National Cancer Institute’s “Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results” (SEER) database. The database includes anonymized information on millions of people who have undergone treatment for cancer and their outcomes. The report also features expected survival life tables that detail survival statistics for various groups who are in remission.
Insurers will use this information, as well as specifics about your particular case and prognosis to determine what type of policy you qualify for — or if you qualify at all.
How to get life insurance if you had cancer
Some life insurance companies may be unwilling to provide coverage for someone with a history of cancer, there are plenty of others who are willing to do so.
Get quotes from multiple life insurance companies: Each insurance company has its own underwriting guidelines, so even if one company denies you coverage doesn’t mean that all of them will. Be sure to get quotes from multiple companies so that you can compare rates and coverage options.
Apply for final expense life insurance: Final expense life insurance policies are typically more expensive than other policies and do not require a medical exam or health questions. This makes them ideal for people with pre-existing conditions like cancer.
 | TruStage
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