If you have a pacemaker and need life insurance, we have companies that understand heart rhythm issues and know how to underwrite your heart history.
Life Insurance with a Pacemaker
A pacemaker is a small device implanted in your chest to help regulate your heart rhythm. You may have had an abnormal EKG which might lead to further testing and diagnosis of an arrhythmia problem such as atrial fibrillation.
Common reasons for pacemakers include bradycardia (slowing of your heartbeat) and heart blocks which disrupt the electrical system and are sometimes caused by a heart attack.
Life Insurance Underwriting
Getting life insurance after a pacemaker is based on:
- The underlying heart condition
- The type of pacemaker device
- Complications – infections, malfunctions, wiring problems
- Your overall health
High-risk life insurance underwriting for medical conditions is complicated, but the good news is that a number of companies specialize in pacemaker underwriting.
Underwriting Offers:
Life insurance offers may vary widely depending on the underlying condition.
Congenital heart blocks with no other coronary artery disease may receive “standard” – “standard table 2” (50%) ratings from the right life insurers.
The following types of heart disease will be the primary factor in determining your life insurance rate, with the pacemaker being secondary.
- Angina
- Angioplasty
- Aortic Stenosis
- Bundle Branch Block
- Heart Bypass
- Heart Murmur
- High Blood Pressure
- Mitral Valve Prolapse
Any of the above may result in higher premiums due to the additional health conditions.
If your device is a biventricular pacemaker or has an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), that’s usually an indication of a more significant underlying condition.
There are a number of life insurance companies available that do a good job underwriting pacemaker histories…the best company usually depends on what the underlying condition is.
Prudential, AIG, John Hancock, and Banner Life tend to be some of the better companies for offers.
If this is the case for you, let us know and we’ll be sure to cover the additional underwriting questions.
Underwriting Pro Tip – If you have an approved offer with another company, accept that offer and then let us try to improve on it. If you let that offer go and it was the best available, you may not get it again.
As you’ll see in a minute, we cover all heart conditions with the questions we ask you as part of underwriting.
Pacemaker Underwriting Questions
Underwriters need to know the following:
- What was the underlying heart condition?
- Were you born with this condition or did it develop later in life?
- Did you have any complications from the pacemaker such as infections, blood clots, perforations or malfunctioning pacemaker?
- If yes, please describe.
- How often do you meet with your cardiologist?
- When was your last cardiac workup and what tests were completed?
- Is your pacemaker a:
- single chamber – 1 wire lead
- dual chamber – 2 wire leads
- biventricular pacemaker – 3 wire leads
- Does the pacemaker also provide defibrillation?
- What medications and dosages do you take?
- What is the reason for life insurance?
- Have you applied to any companies?
- Which companies and what was the outcome?
Don’t worry if you don’t know all the answers to the above pacemaker questions as we’ll work with the information you do have available.
How Our Service Works:
Our quick quote process summarizes your medical history to life insurance companies on an anonymous basis.
It takes 3-5 days to receive feedback and at that time we’ll provide you with accurate term life insurance quotes to consider, and we’ll help you with the application process if you would like to proceed.
Pacemaker FAQ
Life insurance is available for most people with a pacemaker. The key factor is what caused the need for the pacemaker.
You have to wait about 6 months after having your pacemaker implanted so that there is time for you to have follow-up testing to make sure your pacemaker is working properly.
Pacemaker Underwriting Conclusion
Pacemaker life insurance underwriting has improved dramatically over the past few years.
Even if you bought a policy in the past when you were younger, it’s worth revisiting to see if we can help you improve your life insurance coverage.
Please take a few minutes to complete your no-pressure, no-obligation life insurance quote request today.
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