RE: Breast Cancer and Life Insurance

PierremontQuaker03

HI, thanks for looking. My wife has just found out at the age of 44 she has breast cancer.  She is thinking about life insurance thinking about worst case scenario.  From my point of view (the husband) it is not really something I want to look in to and would think would be too expense to get anyway given that she now has a condition. I know she is thinking of our young son and wanting to look after him financially.  Is life insurance worth it with a cancer diagnosis? There is no reason to think she won't out live me and that in a few years she could (please God) be cancer free.  Any advice, is it best to go with a specialist provider?

TELLIT01

You would need to speak to a broker, but post diagnosis I would expect most insurers to exclude cancer from cover.

McKneff

I would expect all of them to exclude cancer 
 cover.
You can't issue again something that has a,ready happen Ed. 

Hopefully she will make a good reco ery .

Aretnap

Life insurance would not typically exclude pre-existing conditions like cancer from cover. It's a simple product - it pays out if you die, and doesn't pay out if you're alive. It doesn't try to differentiate between causes of death, with a few rare exceptions like suicide.

Instead, if you have an existing condition that affects your life expectancy the insurer will increase the price, or decline to offer cover altogether. Which they do depends on the insurer and how severe the condition is, but I would have thought that a recent cancer diagnosis would make it difficult to get cover at any affordable price. Someone with more knowledge of the market might know better, and there might be specialists who would insure depending on the exact nature of her cancer and her prognosis (if these things are known yet).

Alternatively there are guaranteed acceptance plans which do not ask any medical questions at all, however these are usually poor value and best seen as an option of last resort

I hope she makes a full recovery and this turns out not to be needed.