When it comes to life insurance with a condition such as epilepsy it can become more difficult to get covered. However it’s not impossible as long as your condition is under control and you apply with the right company. You should be prepared to pay a little more for your coverage than an average applicant. Even though a lot of people with epilepsy have an average life expectancy it is still a higher risk to the life insurance company. Reason is the chance of dying for a person with epilepsy is 1-3 times more than the average person.
Regardless of what company you go with they will usually want to know similar things about your condition. Onset of your diagnosis is the first one and they generally want you to have been diagnosed for at least one year or more. Type of seizure will also matter since most folks have petit mal or grand mal. If you have grand mal seizure you will get a higher rating than someone with petit mal. The frequency and the amount of seizures will also determine eligibility. For example if you have less than 6 or 7 episodes a year you can qualify for better rates. Life insurance companies can also tell a lot just by looking at the types and dosages of the medication you take. Let’s not forget to mention other factors such as other health impairments, your build, driving ability and if you are a smoker will all be included for risk evaluation.
What to expect
Once you pick a company to apply with they will conduct the underwriting process to determine your rates and eligibility. If you have petit mal epilepsy you can expect to get standard to substandard rate class ranging from table 1 to table 3. Now before you think I am a restaurant manager with all these tables let me explain. Life insurance companies have preferred class for super healthy, standard for the average bear and substandard for higher risk which goes from table 1 to table 10. Each table rating is a 25% increase on your monthly premium. Standard rates for petit mal will be possible if you have more than 2 years since last seizure. However if you have multiple seizures throughout the year expect substandard rates depending on how many you get annually. Grand mal epileptics can also qualify for life insurance and similar factors will be looked at like petit mal applicants. Except that with grand mal you can expect table rates that will get to higher ratings such as table 8 if your condition is not well controlled. Please be aware that it is possible to get really good rates with either type and it really varies case by case.
Now let’s say you don’t qualify for traditional life insurance options. Is that the end of the road? No, not at all, since there are policies that cost a little more but take much higher risk cases with less questions and no exams.These types of policies go by names such as simplified issue, graded and guaranteed issue. We will usually go to this option if the best choices have been exhausted first.
If you are ready to get some quotes please call us at 888.492.1967 and we will give you a no obligation, no pressure and no sales gimmicks quotes completely customized for you. Remember the key to getting life insurance with epilepsy is going to the company that welcomes that risk. To give you an idea out of the 60 companies we work with, we can count on one hand the ones we use for epilepsy. Hope you enjoyed this article and don’t be shy if you have questions to drop a comment below.
