Medicare Supplement Insurance: Are You Insurable?
If you are in your Medicare Supplement Open Enrollment Period, you are 100% insurable, no questions asked. If you are in a guaranteed issue period, some plans may not be available to you but—again—you are 100% insurable. Still no questions asked.
But even if you are not in one of these two groups, it is likely that you will be able to get on a plan anyhow. You will have to undergo some health evaluation questioning, but that doesn’t mean your less than perfect health will prevent you from getting the coverage you need.
Lower Your Expectations
You’re 65 or older. Insurance companies don’t expect you to be able to land a round off back hand spring or have an empty medicine cabinet or even have decent cholesterol. In fact, I am looking at the most recent application for AARP Medicare Supplement Insurance, and they do not ask anything about blood tests or weight or most resolved issues. This is typical across most applications.
The only thing they look for is that you don’t have any “big-ticket” pre-existing conditions or alarming circumstances on your health resume: cancer, upcoming surgery, Alzheimer’s disease, etc. In short, they are looking to answer this question: is your health stable? They are not concerned with whether your health is particularly impressive.
Two Examples of Supposed “Uninsurables”
This week a client of ours called in who thought she was uninsurable because she had cancer 4 years ago. But this just wasn’t true. In fact, most insurance companies will offer you coverage if you have been cancer free without treatments for two years. After we assured her of the good news, she was promptly put on a great plan for her needs.
We also had another case of a man who just had a stent put in 1 year ago. Although he thought this would make it difficult to find a provider, this wasn’t the case either. We shopped some Supplement plans for him and found him a plan that still insured people with stents as long as it wasn’t put in within a year.
Concluding Thoughts
The goal of this post is not to deceive you into thinking that no one is uninsurable, but I do want to give those people with imperfect health some hope. Even pre-existing conditions as bad as diabetes can be insured. There are a lot of insurance companies out there, so shop around. Chances are one of them will take a chance on you!
Limited Time Offer
In fact, right now we have a company offering their Medicare Supplement policies with no medical underwriting! That means even if you are affected by some of the above, they will not look at your health history before insuring you. This is a limited time offer, so you may want to call our office for details if you are interested. An additional bonus of this plan is that it offers the Silver Sneakers benefit!
Need help finding a Medicare Supplement for your unique situation? Looking for a licensed expert with a passion for assisting retirees? Contact Seniormark at 937-492-8800 for a free consultation.
About the Author
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