Life insurance underwriting for Hepatitis will depend on a number of factors.
Overview:
Hepatitis is an inflamation of the liver. There are different types of Hepatitis, typically classified as Type A Hepatitis, Type B Hepatitis, or Type C Hepatitis.
It is estimated that over 150 million people in the world have some form of Hepatitis.
Hepatitis A:
Hepatitis A is usually transmitted via a water or food source. Life insurance for Hepatitis A is readily available for most cases once symptoms are resolved. Life insurance underwriters are not concerned about Hepatitis A once symptoms are gone, and there are no medical problems as a result. It should be possible to obtain a life insurance policy at the best possible rates, assuming no other underwriting issues.
Hepatitis B:
Hepatitis B can be transmitted from mother to infant, by needles, or sexually transmitted. With Hepatitis B, if the person still tests positive after 6 months, it is considered to be chronic Hepatitis B. The life insurance rates that should be available to you will depend on whether you are considered chronic or not, as well as the results from your liver function tests.
Hepatitis C:
Over 70% of the people that have Hepatitis C virus have no symptoms. Many times, the first time they learn that they have Hepatitis C is when they have had routine blood tests performed at the doctors or when they take their paramed exam for insurance.
The availability of life insurance if you have Hepatitis C will depend on a number of factors:
While there are many ways to get Hepatitis C, some will affect your ability to get coverage. If you had a blood transfusion at one point in time, received it from getting a tatoo, piercing, etc. it will be easier to get coverage than if you developed Hepatitis C from using intravenous drugs.
Hepatitis C - What life insurance underwriters look for when underwriting Hepatitis C.
1. When were you diagnosed with Hepatitis C?
2. What are the most recent levels of liver funtion tests? Companies want to know what your AST, ALT, and GGTP levels are. If you have elevated liver function tests, companies want to know what the levels are, and if they are progressively getting worse or improving.
3. Do you drink? - If you do drink alcohol, you are probably wasting your time trying to get coverage as companies will want nothing to do with you.
4. Have you had a liver biopsy done? What were the results of the liver biopsy tests?
5. Have you been diagnosed as having cirrhosis?
6. Have you been treated with Interferon or ribaviron, or both?
7. What are your current liver function test levels?
What to expect from life insurance companies:
Life insurance underwriting for Hepatitis A or Hepatitis B does not typically cause problems as long as symptoms are resolved and you are no longer positive for the virus.
If you have Hepatitis C, we need to talk.
What we do is review the necessary questions with you in order to paint a picture for underwriters. We will then shop your information out to a number of carriers for consideration by the life insurance underwriters. This typically takes 3-5 days to hear back from all companies.
Once we receive the underwriting feedback, we will contact you to review and provide quotes to you.
At LifeInsuranceAdvisors.com, our service is a no pressure, no obligation service. We'll give you the information you need to make an informed decision about your life insurance.
Call us today at Toll Free (800) 909-2040. Thank you.
