Did you know that you can still get life insurance even after a heart attack?
According to the CDC, about 805,0001 people in the United States have a heart attack each year, with 605,000 being first-time heart attacks.
At RiskQuoter, we specialize in helping heart attack survivors find affordable life insurance solutions.
This guide will walk you through the steps to qualify, explain the factors that affect life insurance rates, and share customer success stories.
Can You Get Life Insurance After a Heart Attack?
Yes, you can get life insurance after a heart attack!
Which companies are best, how soon can you get it, and how much will it cost you?
Premiums will be more expensive than for someone who has not had a heart attack, but over time you may have the opportunity to improve those rates.
Simplified issue policies and accelerated underwriting are not available. If you need $25,000 or less coverage, a guaranteed issue final expense policy may be your best option.
Understanding Underwriting After a Heart Attack
After you have a heart attack and your initial treatment (bypass, stents, medications), your next steps will include cardiac rehabilitation.
Your cardiac rehab program will be unique to your specific situation and will culminate with tests such as a stress test, EKG, echocardiogram, etc.
Life insurance is available around the time you complete all cardiac rehab or soon after.
Throughout this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know to find your best life insurance rates after a heart attack.
How We Help Heart Attack Survivors Find Affordable Life Insurance
Benefit # 1 – Specialized Expertise in High-Risk Life Insurance
We have affordable life insurance for you if you’ve had a heart attack (myocardial infarction) and need life insurance.
You’ll know exactly what to expect before you complete an application.
Companies that Specialize in Heart Attacks
Several life insurers do a good job underwriting heart attack histories.
Those companies include:
- AIG – Corebridge Financial
- Banner Life
- John Hancock
- Lincoln National
- Nationwide
- Minnesota
- Pacific Life
- Penn Mutual
- Protective
- Prudential
- SBLI
- Symetra
- United of Omaha
Benefit #2 – Expert Guidance on Navigating Underwriting After Heart Attacks
We’ve been helping heart attack survivors since 1998.
We have the underwriting knowledge and expertise to help you with your medical history, including:
- Single Heart Attack
- Multiple Heart Attacks
- Bypass Surgery
- Stent History
- Poor Cardiac Follow-up
- Other Heart Conditions – aortic stenosis, regurgitation, etc.
Do you need to know all the finer details of heart attack underwriting? Keep reading
Case Studies: Life Insurance After a Heart Attack
Here are some actual clients underwriting outcomes.
Your age, heart attack severity, cardiac rehab, and current health are major factors
Heart Attack Case # 1
Male, Age 60 – $1,000,000
Two heart attacks in 10 years
Two heart attacks in 10 years
Four stents
Favorable Cardiac Workups
BP & Cholesterol Meds
Shopped our companies
Lincoln – Table 4
Principal – Table 4
Prudential – Table 6
Minnesota – Table 6
Nationwide – Table 6
Eight Declines
Lincoln National at Table 4
Heart Attack Case # 2
Male, Age 54 – $250,000
Heart attack at 51
Three stents
Favorable cardiac workups
BP & Cholesterol Meds
Positive lifestyle changes
Shopped our companies
AIG Corebridge – Table 4
Prudential – Table 4
Protective – Table 4
John Hancock – Table 4
AIG-Corebridge at Table 4
Heart Attack Case # 3
Male, Age 67 – $250,000
Heart attack at 48
Quadruple Bypass
No recent cardiac workups
Shopped our companies
AIG Corebridge – Table 6
John Hancock – Table 5
All others declined
AIG at Table 6 was best offer
We take the time to understand your heart attack history and match you with the best life insurance companies.
How Does a Heart Attack Affect Life Insurance Rates?
A heart attack is a major medical event requiring high-risk underwriting expertise to help you get coverage.
Life insurers look at your age at the time of the heart attack, severity, recovery, and other health factors.
Underwriting is complicated if you were under age 40 at the time of your cardiac event.
Heart Attack Table Ratings
Most insurance companies will add table ratings to your underwriting offer but by shopping the market with us, we’ll minimize the ratings.
Each table rating adds approximately 25% to your life insurance rate.
Underwriting Tip for Heart Attack Survivors
You can improve the underwriting outcome by following your cardiologist’s advice, completing all tests and appointments, taking your medications, and making lifestyle improvements.
As part of our process, we’ll ask you many questions to get you accurate quotes:
- How old were you when you had a heart attack?
- Did you have more than one heart attack?
- What caused the heart attack?
- Did you have heart bypass surgery?
- If yes, how many arteries and which ones were bypassed?
- Did you have angioplasty (stents) completed?
- If yes, how many and which arteries?
- Have you completed cardiac rehab and follow-up testing?
- What tests were performed? (stress test, echocardiogram, cardiac catheter)
- What was your left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) if known?
- Were the results from the follow-up stress test normal or abnormal?
- Were any other heart issues discovered? Angina, arrhythmias, atrial fibrillation.
- Do you have high blood pressure?
- Do you have other health issues? asthma, diabetes, cancer history, MS etc.
- What medications do you take?
These are the key questions life insurance underwriters typically ask about heart attacks. Be prepared for follow-up questions based on your specific situation.
Life insurers look at the severity and damage to your heart, the number of arteries affected, treatment received, and your current health when determining the availability and pricing of life insurance.
Other health issues, such as a stroke history, diabetes, or lupus need to be discussed as these issues complicate underwriting.
Let us know about positive changes, such as exercise, weight loss, and quitting tobacco.
Types of Life Insurance Policies for Heart Attack Survivors
For most heart attack survivors, all types of life insurance are available.
If you just had a heart attack, your options may be limited to final expense and accidental death policies.
Otherwise, term life, universal life, and whole life insurance policies are all available.
Insurance companies will give incentives at times if you purchase permanent insurance. The incentives come in the form of underwriting credit and table shave programs.
Tips for Getting Life Insurance After a Heart Attack
We take the time to understand your unique situation and shop around for the best life insurance after a heart attack for you.
It’s important to have patience after a heart attack as it may take some time to get coverage for you.
Typical postponement periods may range from 3-12 months after completing treatment.
Our process includes:
- Gathering your medical history.
- Getting quick quotes from multiple life insurance companies.
- Comparing offers and explaining options available.
- Helping you apply for the policy that best suits your needs.
A quick quote is simply a medical summary: we shop at life insurance companies specializing in heart attacks. The benefit is that we’ll have underwriting feedback from all companies in 3-5 days.
At that point, we can provide you with life insurance quotes based on your individual medical history, whether you want term life insurance, universal life, or whole life insurance.
What’s the catch?
There’s no catch. With our service, there is never any obligation or pressure. We give you the information you need to make an informed decision about your life insurance.
On your end, you must complete all follow-up testing required by your cardiologist, and you need to have regular annual physicals.
Otherwise, you risk getting declined for not having current medical records.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Final Words
Life insurance after a heart attack is available, but you must work with an expert who understands how high-risk life insurance works.
Don’t wait! Secure your family’s future now. Get your personalized life insurance quote today.
At RiskQuoter, we help heart attack survivors get the best life insurance rates available after a heart attack.
Recent Articles:
- cdc.gov/heart-disease/data-research/facts-stats/index.html ↩︎
