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Last Updated on July 9, 2024 by Insurdinary Editorial Team | Fact Checked by Rhonda Gary -->
Life insurance is a great way to pay for burials, funerals, and other final expenses. According to LIMRA’s 2023 Insurance Barometer Study, over 50% of American consumers have some form of life insurance. Unfortunately, that still leaves more than 100 million people uninsured.
A common reason people don’t pursue life insurance is cost. However, many people also assume they can’t qualify for life insurance because of their health or age. No-medical life insurance provides basic coverage for yourself and your loved ones without a medical examination.
If your health isn’t perfect or you’re up in age, your options for life insurance may be limited. You might consider getting a no-health check life coverage policy for ease of approval without paying pricey monthly premiums. Still, you have many factors to consider before buying a policy, which you can learn about in the post below.
Life insurance and medical exams usually go hand in hand. Many agencies are cautious about extending high-payout policies to people who have chronic or terminal illnesses or those who engage in risky behaviors like smoking. As a result, providers use medical underwriting to determine whether applicants have pre-existing conditions that would make them too risky to cover.
If you must have a physical exam to qualify for a particular life insurance policy, you can rest assured that the process is relatively straightforward. The exam will likely take about 30 minutes. It’s similar to getting an annual check-up with your primary care physician.
Most life insurance providers offering traditional policies will request your medical records and require you to complete a questionnaire about your health. They’ll use that documentation to collect the following data to assess your health status:
Today, many life insurance providers offer some form of no-medical life insurance as well as standard policies that require medical exams. With this type of policy, you can secure modest life insurance regardless of your health status. Since the insurance providers offering this service don’t require you to supply medical documentation, they won’t collect details about your health and use them to deny your application.
No-medical life insurance is similar to a traditional policy in several ways. Upon approval, you’ll have to pay monthly premiums to keep your coverage.
However, your life insurance provider won’t demand a physical exam or documentation regarding your current health status. These policies don’t include medical underwriting, so you can qualify for coverage without a medical exam.
One of the top reasons more life insurance providers offer non-medical exam life insurance policies is the assumption that the coverage will be modest. Depending on the provider, premium amounts, policy, and other factors, life insurance policies can be worth as little as a few thousand or millions of dollars.
You can expect any no-medical life insurance policy to include a cap coverage amount. The likeliness of qualifying for a high-payout policy without a medical exam is slim but not impossible. You might need to get a medically underwritten policy to improve your family’s coverage amount.
Although some policies can be costly, getting affordable life insurance without medical tests is possible. The insurance agency assumes more risk when approving someone for a policy without knowing their health status.
Agencies will combat that problem by charging higher premiums. Given the demand for no-medical life insurance, the rates for these policies are competitive. Still, you could pay more with this type of policy than with traditional life insurance coverage.
It’s reasonable to think medical exam-free life insurance providers won’t ask any questions about your health when you apply for coverage. Unfortunately, that’s not accurate.
Even if you don’t need to have a physical exam and provide medical documentation to an insurance provider, the company’s application process may include questions about your health. Depending on the insurance provider, the questions they ask on the application may be minimal, in-depth, or somewhere in between.
No matter what the insurance providers ask on their application forms, you should answer questions honestly. Otherwise, you can jeopardize your coverage.
Another assumption people tend to make about no-medical life insurance is that all policies are term life policies with basic coverage. However, you can benefit from one of several types of life insurance without undergoing medical tests.
Here are some options to consider:
In a perfect world, anybody could buy the life insurance coverage they want at an affordable price to help secure their financial future or pay for end-of-life expenses. Unfortunately, multiple health conditions and lifestyle choices can keep people from securing specific policies.
No-medical life insurance helps those who would otherwise not qualify for traditional life insurance have some type of coverage. However, pre-existing conditions often make it harder to get traditional, medically underwritten policies with major payouts. The same goes for engaging in activities that insurance providers consider dangerous.
Insurance companies often exclude or restrict people they think are too risky. You should consider this sort of life insurance if you have these pre-existing health conditions or engage in the following activities:
Health assessment-free life insurance helps people of diverse backgrounds get the flexibility and customization that other life insurance policies don’t offer. These policies are excellent for those needing only a small policy to pay for final expenses upon their death to minimize their family’s stress during such an emotional time.
Fast approval is the top benefit of a no-medical life insurance policy. Approval can come in as little as 24 hours, which is great if you need coverage now. In the worst-case scenario, you might need to wait up to two weeks after applying to get your approval.
Even if medical exams for insurance coverage are free, you might not like the process. Maybe you prefer to keep your health private. Since life insurance policies don’t require medical exams, you don’t have to subject yourself to needles or expose more of your medical history than you feel comfortable sharing.
No-medical life insurance has disadvantages, the same as all other insurance policies. Price can be a problem. Despite the competitive rates, you’ll likely pay more for limited coverage than you would for a traditional policy with a higher payout.
Many insurance providers now offer no-medical life insurance. Still, agencies offer fewer choices than medically underwritten policies. Agencies can also forego paying your death benefit to your beneficiaries if you die from a condition or activity you didn’t disclose to the insurance provider.
No-medical life insurance certainly has its advantages. These life insurance policies make getting a life insurance policy easier for people with pre-existing conditions and eclectic lifestyles. They also offer great flexibility and financial protection that you might want for you and your loved ones.
Not everyone should get no-medical life insurance. The higher monthly premiums and limited coverage could be a downside, especially if you’re young and generally healthy.
Should you get a non-medical or medically underwritten life insurance policy? Regardless of your choice, our Insurdinary staff can make it easy to find the right insurance provider. We allow you to quickly compare the best insurance rates from some of the nation’s top providers at once.
Our professional representatives will help you pick the most comprehensive, affordable option for your needs. Turn to Insurdinary today and start comparing life insurance quotes by completing our convenient online quote form.