Getting the Right Life Insurance Policy for Those with Thyroid Cancer

Can I get affordable life insurance with thyroid cancer?

Individual’s that suffer from thyroid cancer may think affordable life insurance is hard to obtain. Fortunately, with the right guidance, this may not be the case.  As a team, we strive to discover the best life insurance policy that is tailor to your unique circumstances.  Unfortunately, the incidence of thyroid cancer is increasing. This could be due to increased detection and clinical awareness. When looking for life insurance with thyroid cancer it is imperative that you work with an agent that specializes in this area.

The agent plays a vital role in finding the company that will offer the most competitive rate for your personalized policy in the marketplace. The agent who understands this market will already know the insurers that concentrate in underwriting life insurance with thyroid cancer. This could save the client not only time but money as well in lower premiums.

What information is needed to find affordable life insurance with thyroid cancer?

It is important to understand what the underwriter will be looking for when evaluating the risk for life insurance with thyroid cancer.

Knowing the type of thyroid cancer you have been diagnosed with and knowing some additional information will help you in relaying this to your agent. You can find the different subtypes of Thyroid cancer and how they differ here.

When an underwriter is evaluating the risk for life insurance with thyroid cancer they are interested in knowing the stage of thyroid cancer you have or had. This is usually found in the pathology report. This report gives the underwriter valuable information when determining which risk class to place an individual.

The TNM is the most common staging method. This stands for tumor, nodes, metastasis. An example of a staging on a thyroid pathology report may look like this:

• Stage T1- less than 2 cm
• Stage T2- 2-4 cm
• Stage T3- great than 4 cm, but limited to the thyroid or with minimal extra-thyroid extension
• Stage T4- tumor of any size that extends beyond the capsule into the subcutaneous soft tissues and nearby structures.
• NO- no nodes
• N1a- Nodes involved in pre-trachea, para-trachea, and pre-laryngeal regions.
• N1b- Nodes involved in cervical or superior mediastinal regions
• MO- No distant metastases
• M1- With distant metastases

The rating from an insurance company for thyroid cancer is based on the cell type and the stage or TNM classification. The risk class is worse with higher stages and better for lower stage such as T1 or T2. Other areas of information that will be needed to determine the risk for life insurance with thyroid cancer include but are not limited to:

• Treatment- surgical excision (with or without node and neck exploration) followed by any radioisotope? For small tumors, many times surgery is adequate.
• Surveillance- lifetime follow-up with high-resolution ultrasound. Many times, one year after treatment levels of thyroglobulin are almost undetectable.

Based on the insured’s age, staging level, treatment, and follow-up history, an underwriter will place the insured in a risk class corresponding to the information obtained. As an example:

A 30-year-old female diagnosed with thyroid cancer stage T1 with surgery, complete follow-up, and no re-occurrence along with no other medical history would typically fall into the standard risk category. Again, it is important that an individual looking for life insurance with thyroid history work with an experienced agent in order to get the right policy for you.

This standard risk class would not include any extra premium charge for the thyroid cancer history. If a thyroid cancer history is a more high risk or more recent then the underwriter could charge an extra premium for the life insurance policy.

Here are the questions that an insured looking for life insurance with thyroid cancer should be ready to provide in order to find the most affordable rate:

• Male or Female?
• Date of Birth?
• Any tobacco use ever? If stopped, when?
• Date of thyroid cancer diagnosis?
• What type of cancer? For example, Papillary or Papillary Follicular, Follicular, Medullary, Anaplastic, Hurthle?
• What was the stage of the tumor?
• What treatments have you had? For example, Surgery, chemotherapy, external radiation?
• Is there any history of metastatic disease?
• Have any additional studies been done? For example, radioisotope scans, ultrasound, thyroglobulin, calcitonin? If so, when?
• Are you currently on any medications?
• Any other major health problems
• The amount of coverage needed?
• Type of coverage life insurance coverage?

With the above information, your agent can go out into the marketplace, speak to the underwriters and find the policy that best fits your individual needs.

If you are looking for the best policy for YOU, contact us at 1-272-573-5548.