The sad passing of Jade Goody and Wendy Richards to cancer has shocked the nation. While Wendy passed with little media attention, Jade Goody made the most of the media attention in an attempt to raise money for her two sons after she had gone.

Whilst some don’t survive their battle with cancer, many do, and surviving cancer can bring with it a new realisation of death. Survivors may be left wondering just how they will be able to provide for there families after they are gone.

A life insurance policy would be able to cover for that eventuality, but what about those who have survived cancer or any other near fatal illness? Just how keen are insurance companies to offer life cover for those with a history of serious illness?

A life insurance company will obviously deem anyone with a history of illness as a higher risk, so before anything you will have to accept the fact that premiums will be higher. With most cancers, life insurance companies won’t even consider cover until two or three years after recovering from the cancer. The cost of the insurance premiums will be depend on how long you have been cancer free. Someone who has been free for over ten years will get cheaper premiums than someone who has been free for five years.

An insurance company will base the premiums on the staging classifications of cancer made by hospitals; this basically means what type of cancer it was and how early or advanced the diagnosis was. With consent the insurance company will write to the hospital or doctor for medical details which could affect the policy. The insurance company has a duty to base their assessment on the information received from the hospital or doctor. The insurance company may ask for a medical examination before taking out the policy, the most important thing to do is to contact the insurance company yourself as many will base each policy on a case by case basis.

There are a couple of things that can be done to get the best possible terms. Firstly it is important to make informal enquiries with lots of different companies. Not only will that give you a good idea of price, but if one company rejects you, the other insurance companies have a right to know and therefore may be less inclined to offer a policy if other companies have rejected the same policy.

If you don’t have the time to do this yourself then you may want to enlist the help of a financial advisor or an insurance broker. You may be able to gain their services for free as many work on commission from the insurance companies. Not only can they then do a lot of the leg work, you can also use their specialist knowledge of the insurance field to get the best possible deal.

It is a simple fact that life insurance premiums for a cancer survivor are going to be higher than the average person, but it is important to remember that it is still possible to get some form of cover after surviving cancer.


About the author

Whatever your medical history there is a life insurance policy out there for you. Life insurance could give you peace of mind while you are around and give your family security when you are not.