A couple decades ago, the statistics of surviving this terrible disease was grim, which made the prospect of getting approved for life insurance after cancer nearly impossible.
But what about now?
Cancer still claims the lives of over a half million people per year, and it’s projected that over 1.6 million American will be diagnosed with cancer this year alone.
The good news is that more and more Americans are surviving cancer and even defeating the disease. New treatments and medical technology are slowly but surely making headway in beating back the disease, especially with early detection, and lengthening life expectancy.
Some cancers are more treatable than others, and surviving, if not total remissions, are becoming more commonplace for some types of cancer such as prostate, breast cancer and melanoma. Success rates for other cancers such as lung and pancreatic cancer are still tragically limited.
Cancer and Life Insurance Companies
Even a few years ago, life insurance companies wouldn’t have given you the time of day if you even mentioned you had been diagnosed with the ‘Big C’. That was then, and times have changed.
Life insurance companies have also taken note of the increased survivor rate of cancer patients. They have a much better understanding of the type of cancer, cancer grade, stage of cancer and treatment plans.
The premiums for obtaining life insurance if you’ve been diagnosed with cancer were once through the roof, and most cancer survivors may not have been able to afford the cost of a policy.
Even the cheapest form of life insurance which is term insurance wouldn’t have been affordable for many.
It’s important to remember that not all insurance companies are the same. Some are still very stodgy where cancer is concerned, but many more insurance companies are more progressive when it comes to issuing life insurance to those who have been afflicted with cancer.
Today, most insurance companies follow the guidelines and access the database provided by the National Cancer Institute which has the acronym SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results). This information is submitted by Oncologists and researchers on over 3 million cancer patients.