Life Insurance  With Rheumatoid Arthritis

By James Tobin, CFP®

Critical Takeaways

  • Rate Impact Significant
  •  Pricing  Based On Severity and Frequency Of Flares, Complications, Hospitalization/Missed Work And  Prescription Medication History
  • Standard Rates Possible, Table Ratings Likely

Bequest Mutual Difficulty Rating

Expert Review Of  Life Insurance  With Rheumatoid Arthritis

Reviewed by

Jim Tobin, CFP®

Why you can have confidence in this review

At Bequest Mutual Life Insurance, we value our editorial independence. We keep our reviews strictly factual so you can use them to make informed decisions. Life insurance carriers referred to on this site do not approve reviews. 

When you're dealing with Rheumatoid arthritis, you know about the everyday challenges that you face. What you may not know is that obtaining life insurance with depression may also be a challenge.

The eight questions and answers below  are a good start to getting a handle on the issue.  For more in-depth answers, just follow the links and keep reading.

Can I Be Approved For Life Insurance With RA?

Insurance policies can be purchased by anyone, even if you need life insurance with rheumatoid arthritis. But it does come with a few limitations – you won’t get as many options anymore and you may have to pay higher rates, depending on how severe your RA is, when it was first diagnosed, and your general health condition.

Each type of policy has different underwriting standards attached to it. Therefore, this article has been divided into three separate sections. You can directly access the relevant section by clicking on the links here.

Best Price

Strict Underwriting.

More Expensive

Easy Underwriting

Most Expensive

No Underwriting

What Information Will  Life Insurance Companies Want To Know About My RA ?

Life insurance companies need some basic information from every applicant – their symptoms, treatments, medications, and follow up history.

Since RA happens to be a progressive disease, insurance underwriters will pay more attention to how steadfast you’ve been in your follow up and compliance with the physician’s instructions. This includes documentation proving that you’ve been regularly taking your prescribed medicines & records of you attending your scheduled doctor’s appointments without fail.

Apart from this, you’ll also be asked whether you’re taking any homeopathic/dietary supplements for your condition. You can check out the Cleveland Clinic for more information regarding this.

Will I Need To Take An Exam For Rheumatoid Arthritis Life Insurance?

Individuals who are committed to getting the cheapest premiums possible must take a medical examination. If you only have mild rheumatoid arthritis, you may qualify for a no-examination policy. However, serious cases will be mandatorily required by the company to undergo an exam, which involves the collection and blood & urine samples. But no worries, this exam won’t cost you a penny and can be administered as per your convenience.

You can get out of the medical examination requirement by opting for guaranteed issue or simplified issue policies. Check out How Term Life Insurance Works if you’d like to learn more.

How Much Will My Life Insurance Cost And How Exactly Are My Rates Affected By My Rheumatoid Arthritis Diagnosis?

A term insurance policy’s premium depends on the underwriting standards of the insurance company offering it. Generally, RA applications receive a standard rating or even lower than that. For a comprehensive overview of this subject, check out our pricing samples and rating guides pages. Details about guaranteed issue issue and simplified issue policies have also been provided in links here.

How Accurate Are The RA life Insurance Quotes I Get From Your Quote Tool? 

We’ve taken great pains to ensure that the quotes generated by our quote tool are reliable and accurate to a reasonable degree. However, the results are very much dependent on the quality of the information you feed in. People often think they’re worse off or better off than they actually are, thus distorting the final results.

People unsure about their rate class can simply pick a range to obtain quotes that come close to their actual premiums. If you need more help, consider filling out our customized quote form – it’s free, simple, and we’ll get back to you in no time! 

How Can I Improve My Underwriting Rating And Lower My Life Insurance Cost?

People with an autoimmune health condition like RA can augment their chances of getting a better insurance policy by religiously complying with the instructions issued by their doctor, taking their medicines on time, and regularly visiting the doctor for updates. You can further improve your chances by eating healthy, exercising more, and cutting back on your alcohol and smoking habits.

However, the biggest factor influencing your insurance policy terms will always be your agent. Pick an independent and experienced insurance agent for your needs and you won’t need to be worried about your terms being too unsavory. Any insurance agent worth his salt should be able to get you affordable premiums, regardless of your condition. To learn more about the advantages of using an independent agent, check out  the section belong on "Why to use Independent Agent when Shopping for Life Insurance with rheumatoid arthritis".

What Are The Best Life Insurance Companies For RA Survivors? 

Most people are unaware of the fact that life insurance firms are not all equal when it comes to evaluating the applications of people with major health conditions. This can be seen in the underwriting terms they issue for such people and the premiums they charge.

Banner, AIG, and Prudential are the three biggest insurance carriers catering to people who need life insurance with rheumatoid arthritis. Term insurance with major health conditions is a highly complex issue that can only be woven to your benefit by an experienced insurance agent who works with multiple carriers. Our case study presented below in this article will help you gain a deeper understanding of this issue.

What Is The Application Process For Life Insurance Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Almost all term life insurance applications submitted by people with a preexisting condition is treated the same way – you need to arrive at what terms you’d be willing to accept, select a carrier that offers a plan compatible with your terms, complete their medical examination, sign and submit the documents to them. It’s an 8-step procedure that has been discussed in greater detail here

Traditional Term Life Insurance For RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis)

The process of obtaining a life insurance offer with RA is similar to seeking life insurance with Sleep Apnea or AFib and many other specific conditions.

Although rheumatoid arthritis patients are not always denied a standard rating, you’ll need to craft a good application and submit it to an insurer with a higher risk appetite for your condition to get affordable insurance premiums. The best way to do this is by engaging an independent agent who has a successful history of helping RA patients gain access to an affordable insurance policy.

The term period of most life insurance products ranges from 5 to 30 years. Their face value starts at around $50,000 and remains in effect until it is terminated when the term period is over. You can renew it, of course, but you might have to pay increased premium rates though.

Possible Term Underwriting Ratings With RA

The way you draft your application matters a lot because every life insurance application gets evaluated separately on its own merits. As a result, you’ll often find that people who belong to the same age group and have the same medical condition may often wind up with vastly different insurance premiums! We’ve provided three pricing scenarios here, which you can use for estimating your own life insurance premiums to a reliable degree,

Best Case – If your RA had been detected early and your condition is currently under control with no further complications or damage to your organs, you may qualify for a standard rating. Our website’s quote tool can help you out here.

Mid-Level – In case you need NSAID medications and have mild RA symptoms, which were detected less than three years before the date of application but have a history of good compliance, your application may be given a substandard rating. Calculate your premiums in this case by multiplying the standard premium rate with 1.5 (Refer to Table 2/B and Table 4/D for more information) 

Click here to learn more about table ratings and how they are used. 

Severe Level – In case you exhibit severe RA symptoms, require a steady supply of chronic maintenance medications and have already suffered organ damage, you may only qualify for severe substandard rates, which can be calculated by multiplying standard rates with 3 (Refer Table 8/H).

* While this is more expensive than standard rates, it may still be a very good outcome. 

Decline – Severe cases may be denied for traditional coverage options. But you can still opt for simplified issue or guaranteed issue policies, which have a lower face value. Contact us today to learn more about your options. 

Term Life Insurance Pricing With Rheumatoid Arthritis

It can be quite tricky to find the right deal for you if you have a major medical condition. That’s because insurance carriers often impose stringent rules on people with medical conditions. However, not all carriers are the same and some may be more lenient towards your condition than others. We’ve discussed this issue further in a case study given below.

Case Study Pricing Policies With RA

Please see the case study below. It will show you why it is in your interest to have as many options as possible available when shopping for life insurance with RA or any other impairment.

Gender: Male Age: 45

$500000 20 Year Term

Tobacco: No

Well controlled mild RA. Diagnosed Age 34

NSAID only No Other Health Concerns

This looks like a best case scenario that would be either standard or Table 2/B or 4/D depending on the insurers appetite for a RA risk.. Let's take a look at the rates.

  • Standard Rates
  • Table 2/B Rates
  • Table 4/D Rates

Life Insurance Company

Monthly Payment

$ 97.78

 $ 114.52

 $ 115.65

$ 130.77

$ 143.49

The table here displays premiums quoted by major term life insurance companies operating in the country. If you have a standard rating from all carriers, Prudential is going to be 33% costlier compared to Banner. But that’s only in theory.

In actual practice though, people suffering from major illnesses like RA are not given a standard rating by these price-competitive insurance companies. Their profiles are allotted substandard ratings, which means that they’ll have to wind up paying higher premiums than their standard option. On the other hand, a major insurance carrier like Prudential has laxer standards for people seeking life insurance with rheumatoid arthritis, and therefore, may classify them with a standard rating. Note that for an application that has been rated standard by Prudential, the premiums are far lower than the lowest premium in Tables 2 and 4, which deal with substandard applications.

As you can see, shopping for term life insurance is not as easy as it appears to be. While it’s simply a matter of sorting the options by cheapest first and purchasing a policy if you’re a young and healthy person, people with major illnesses must analyze and scrutinize every option out there to get the best insurance deal for themselves. Because things are not always what they seem.

Why You Should Use An Independent Agent When Shopping For Life Insurance With Rheumatoid Arthritis?

The above section is a perfect illustration of why you should use an independent agent. While some people are prepared to spend weeks, analyzing each and every insurance company, their offerings, underwriting standards, etc., most of us simply don’t have that kind of time to spare. It’s simply too much of a hassle and you just might miss out on some of the fine print during your research.

However, an independent agent can help you counter all these worries. Not only do most of them have access to 50+ companies, which allows them to source numerous quotes, they also know which companies would give you a better deal. We’ve already seen how different companies have different underwriting standards and prices for the same condition.

An experienced agent can help you navigate the complex world of term life insurance and land you the best possible deals, thus saving you precious time, money, and energy in the process. 

Next Step

Thank you for choosing the Bequest Mutual Life Insurance  to research life insurance with rheumatoid arthritis. We are committed to a totally transparent process (we'll even share our computer screen with you if you'd like), and making the application process as painless as possible.

Should you have any question, please do not hesitate to give us a call or contact us via email.

Fast Fact About RA

Unlike osteoarthritis , which is a degenerative disease, Rheumatoid arthritis or RA is an autoimmune disease. 

Approximately 2.1 people suffer from RA in the united States, with women being 3 times more likely to suffer the disease.

  RA is believed to cost the economy $ 128,000,000 annually in medical costs and lost productivity.

Several well known celebrities have suffered from RA over the years. Among them are comedienne Lucille Ball , famed painter Pierre Renoir, actress Kathleen Turner, baseball Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax and actor James Coburn

If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, you know haw difficult the day to day can be. What you may not have known is how it can effect your life insurance application. 

We hope that this page helps you better deal with the life insurance process with RA.

Keywords: Life Insurance With RA, Rheumatoid Arthritis Life Insurance policy, Burial Insurance with Rheumatoid arthritis.

Security Dashboard

Firewall

Encryption

Uptime Status

API Status

Password Security

Role Access



Firewall Monitoring Status

Encryption Status

Uptime Status

.API Status

Password Security

Role Access

Security Dashboard

Firewall

Security Log

Encryption

Uptime Status

API Status

Password Security

Role Access



Firewall Monitoring Status

Origin of Attacks

Infiltration Attempts

Security Events

Security Dashboard

Firewall

Security Log

Encryption

Uptime Status

API Status

Password Security

Role Access



Network Security Event Log