Finding life insurance after surviving Cancer can be frustrating and can easily make you want to give up on the search.

But what if I told you: 

Since 1969 we have been helping cancer survivors find the best and most affordable cancer life insurance rates and products available.

Today I will go over how the process works for obtaining life insurance for cancer patients that have survived and how you can obtain the best rates.

cancer life insurance

Life Insurance For Cancer Patients & Survivors

It might be hard to grasp your mind around how much a cancer diagnosis affects America and the people around us in general.

But, according to the American Cancer Society, 40+ percent of all men and women will receive a cancer diagnosis within our lifetimes.

They also state that 66.1% of people who are diagnosed will survive.

I must say that the fact that there is above a 50% survival rate on average makes me happy.

If you have found it hard to find life insurance after surviving cancer, we are here to help.

We can beat any offer you've been given by any agent, broker or website because of our unique process and because we can easily shop your medical records to underwriters at every insurance company.

Our service is free and we have access to more life insurance companies than any life insurance agencies, brokers or websites.

If You're Currently In Treatment For Cancer

If you are currently being treated for any type of cancer you will usually only be able to qualify for guaranteed issue life insurance which is a common type of life insurance for seniors who cannot qualify for traditional life insurance.

This product goes by many names, Final Expense Insurance, Burial Insurance, Graded Death Benefit, Guaranteed Acceptance Life Insurance or Modified Life Insurance. 

All of these policies will basically function the same way if you are currently in treatment:

  • Face Amounts ranging From $2,000 to $50,000
  • Be A Whole Life Insurance Policy
  • Policies Will Have 2 To 3 Year Waiting Period
  • Policies Will Build Cash Value

You are probably going to only be able to get traditional life insurance around 1 to 2 years after treatment has ended.

Depending on your type of cancer it can be longer but while in treatment, this type of life insurance will be your only option.

Best Life Insurance Rates for Cancer Survivors

If you've had a history of cancer of any kind, Standard or Regular rates are usually going to be the best case rates for which you’ll be approved. Table ratings can also apply.

For some types of cancer, like lung cancer or pancreatic cancer, you may not be able to qualify at all.

You may also be charged an extra premium for a certain number of years after treatment has ended.

This is called a "flat extra" premium and it could be added to your policy for any number of years, like 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, etc. 

Make sure to compare cancer life insurance flat extra's

Every insurance company may charge you a different flat extra...so it's very important to get numerous offers and compare life insurance premiums.

The cost of the flat extra will be determined based on the type and stage of your cancer, how long it's been since treatment has ended and you've been in remission.

After the flat extra period is over, the rate you pay will be reduced. 

There are some very aggressive cancer life insurance companies that will offer preferred plus or preferred rates to some low stage cancer's like:

  • In situ colon cancer
  • kidney cancer
  • prostate cancer
  • uterine cancer
  • melanoma
  • thyroid cancer
  • testicular cancer
  • cervical cancer

Getting any preferred life insurance rate after having cancer is rare, but is possible, especially if you've been in remission for more than 10 years!

Best Life Insurance Companies For Cancer

All cancer cases do need to be "shopped" thoroughly since underwriting guidelines can and do change.

In other words, the companies that were most aggressive for certain types of cancer 6 months ago, may no longer be now.   

Some of the insurance companies that have been aggressive for some cancer survivors are:

  • Banner Life
  • Protective Life
  • Prudential
  • Transamerica 
  • John Hancock
  • Lincoln National
  • Symetra Life
  • North American Company for Life & Health

Honestly, there are too many variables involved to state which specific company or companies may be best for you. 

However, there are some insurance companies that only (currently) question whether or not you have been treated for cancer over the previous 10 years.

If you've been in remission for more than 10 years, then one of these companies may be your best option to qualify for a preferred plus or preferred rate.

These companies whose medical questionnaire only asks about cancer in past 10 years are:

  • Assurity Life
  • Life of Southwest
  • Mass Mutual
  • Penn Mutual
  • Sagicor Life
  • John Hancock
  • Principal Life
  • Symetra Life
  • North American Company for Life & Health

The medical questions can also change at anytime and can vary depending on your State of residence.

Getting Accurate Cancer Survivor Quotes

If you want life insurance and you are a cancer survivor, there are 4 essential things that we need to known to determine if you are insurable:

Your Type Of Cancer And The Date You Were Diagnosed? 

If you’ve had low stage Thyroid Cancer, Cervical Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Melanoma or Non-Melanoma skin cancer or Breast Cancer and you need life insurance, you may be insurable right after treatment has ended. 

You could also be insurable in the first 6 to 12 months after treatment for other low stage forms of cancer, such as ovarian cancer, kidney cancer and bladder cancer.  

Leukemia, Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Cancer of Lymph Nodes and Stage 3 or higher cancers can cause you to be postponed or declined from 5 to 10 years after treatment ended, and sometimes for even a longer period of time.

What Was The Stage And/Or Grade Of Your Cancer? 

With a copy of your pathology report and answers to a few questions, we can give you estimates on what insurance may cost for you based on your cancer history.

At the very least, we will need to know the exact stage of your cancer including the T, N, M categories to get any accurate insurance estimates.

The exact date that all treatments ended

The last day of treatment for cancer is when the waiting period for life insurance starts.

So if you’ve had surgical removal of any cancer and chemo and radiation, just remember that the last day of all cancer treatments is what life insurance companies are interested in.

We’ve had some cases where people qualified for insurance only 6 months or sooner after treatment has ended, like for small In Situ Melanomas, but these are the exceptions. 

Have all cancer follow ups been completely normal

If you have had any cancer and you want life insurance, you must have had regular check ups following your cancer that have all been completely normal to qualify for coverage.

Any abnormalities will most likely cause you to be postponed or declined.

Life Insurance After Breast Cancer 

Breast cancer awareness month is the perfect time to talk about getting life insurance after breast cancer!

There are a few A+ rated insurance companies that will now offer Preferred rates on some breast cancer cases.

To have a shot at getting a Preferred rate after breast cancer treatment, it will ideally have to be about 10 years since successful treatment or after five years for successful treatment of situ cancer, assuming you’ve had appropriate follow up with your doctor.

There is even one well known life insurance company that will offer you Standard or Regular rates immediately following successful treatment for specific localized breast cancer as long as you are age 40+. 

Getting a preferred rate for any invasive cancer was unheard of even a few years ago.

As was getting any life insurance right after successful treatment because there was always a waiting period of about 1 to 10 years after successful treatment had ended in the recent past.

This is great news for anyone that has had breast cancer and needs life insurance.

It Is Not Easy To Get an Accurate Quote After Breast Cancer

Without reviewing the pathology report from your cancer, getting accurate quotes can be difficult, as the exact staging information including the TNM staging can have a significant impact on the rate for which you’ll qualify and on the insurance companies that could make you best offer.

We have email addresses for underwriters and reps at hundreds of different Excellent and Superior AM Best rated insurance companies, so we can quickly and easily inquire with EVERY life insurance company with competitive rates.

No independent agent, broker or online life insurance website can offer you more life insurance companies than we can offer you.

We represent so many different companies because this has proven to result in the best offers.

Want an Accurate Quote Prior to Applying?

If you’d like to get the most accurate life insurance quote and have had breast cancer, then I’d recommend calling your doctor or oncologist’s office and ask them to send you a copy of your complete pathology report from your cancer.

Then “white out” your name and identifying information to protect your privacy and fax or email it to me at 215-836-0828 or email it directly to me by clicking here.

In addition to your pathology results, current age, and overall health otherwise, I will also need to know the following information to get you accurate quotes and to narrow down best insurance companies for you:

  • Date of your breast cancer diagnosis?
  • Date when ALL treatments were completed?
  • Has there been any evidence of recurrence?
  • Date and result of last mammogram?

Avoid Any Agent That Tries To Get You To Apply Right Away

I’ve recommended getting a copy of your path report above because I’ve done hundreds of cancer cases, and there is ABSOLUTELY no way that any agent, broker, or insurance website can tell you right away that any one particular insurance company will be best for you.

There are some well known insurance websites and agents that work for these sites whose #1 goal is to get you to apply right away.

There’s at least one that even requires you to provide your payment information (i.e. credit card or bank routing and account number) before they’ll deal with you.

If you deal with an agent/website like this, I can 100% guarantee you that you will NOT get the best offer.

Hang up the phone if on your initial call you’re asked if you’d like to “apply for life insurance" now or if you’re required to provide payment just to apply.

Don’t Apply Unless You’re Comfortable You Got A Good Cancer Life Insurance Quote

We can offer you insurance from EVERY competitive insurance company.

It usually takes a minimum of two to three days before we hear back from underwriters at every life insurance company after an inquiry for a tentative offer. Any offers are “tentative” until full medical records and life insurance exam results can be reviewed.

We'll have you apply to multiple companies right off the bat, as this is no more difficult than applying to only one company...we can use one insurance exam for ANY life insurance companies.  Then we negotiate between underwriters and you save money!!

If any new issues turn up during the underwriting process and you don’t qualify for the rates I quoted initially, then I will have access to your medical records and insurance exam results, and I can easily re-shop your case to any other life insurance companies to get better offers. This won't require you to do anything.

I have shopped over 20,000 life insurance cases over the past 30 years to hundreds of different insurance companies, so I have a LOT of experience and know what I’m talking about here.

I don’t want your credit card number, banking information, social security number, or anything else until I can find you the best insurance companies based on your exact breast or other cancer and health history and then you tell me you want to apply.

If You’ve Already Been Offered Coverage as Breast Cancer Survivor…

If you’ve recently been approved for ANY life insurance policy or you have an old policy that was placed in force after you had breast cancer, then your case should be re-shopped to all carriers as there is a very high likelihood that we can get you a better offer

Life Insurance After Cancer (Case Study)

While it's extremely rare for any cancer survivor to get a preferred plus life insurance rate, it can happen...

We got inquiry from a 69 year old gentleman who had surgery for oropharyngeal cancer 13 years ago, and he's been in remission since.

His health was really good otherwise, but we still quoted him standard rates and told him we'd apply for better rate class.

However, we were not comfortable quoting him lower rates, as we never want anyone to accuse us of "low-balling" someone.

We had him apply to the best companies for him that only question about cancer treatment within past 10 years on their application and medical exam, knowing these companies would be our best bet to get him a better than Standard rate.

More Liberal Underwriting on Permanent Life Insurance

These particular insurance companies did want to see medical records on this 69 year old gentleman, which we obtained, and they showed the stage of his cancer as T1N1MO.

He remained cancer-free for past 13 years, and this gentleman qualified for a Preferred Plus rate on permanent life insurance with chronic and critical illness benefits.

This gentleman did apply for Guaranteed Universal Life insurance, and many insurance companies tend to make better offers on permanent life insurance than they do on term life. 

Don't Overshare Information on Insurance Application or Exam

We've probably said this over a thousand times in our careers, but you should never provide more information than any life insurance application or insurance examiner questions you about. 

When a typical question is "In the past 10 years, have you been diagnosed with, treated, or advised to get treatment, hospitalized, or presently taking prescription medication or had any medical procedures for any type of cancer?" and of all your treatment, medication, and procedures have ended more than 10 years ago, then you should answer "NO" to this question.

And don't mention having cancer 13 years ago, 15 years ago, etc., as this provides no benefit to you and could end up causing you to be charged more than you should.

Always be honest, but never over-share!

Below are other cancer cases we shopped to numerous insurance companies with their outcomes:

  • Testicular cancer stage 1 with tumor removal 23 years ago...best offer Preferred Plus
  • Classical nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's lymphoma in remission 17 years...best offer Preferred Plus 
  • Prostate cancer with radiation treatment only 9 years ago, with PSA of .04 after treatment ended and current PSA of .26...best offer Standard
  • Melanoma 13 years ago and prostate cancer 7 years ago...best offer Standard
  • Stage 1 Breast cancer 10 years ago with lumpectomy, chemo and radiation...best offer Standard Plus
  • Stage 3 Prostate cancer with removal 9 years ago then with recurrence and subsequent radiation ending 7 years ago...best offer Table 4, most companies declined
  • Stage 3 Colon cancer with lymph node involvement, had colon resection and chemo ending 7 years ago...best offer Standard with $5 flat extra for 1 year, highest flat extra from other insurer was $30

Pay for Policy ASAP After Getting Great Rate

Our stage 1 testicular cancer gentleman was happy to qualify for an even better rate than we quoted.

He accepted and paid for the policy right away, based on our recommendation.

The bottom line here is that if you ever get any Standard or better offer on life insurance as a cancer survivor, accept the policy right away and pay at least a monthly premium so you "lock in" your coverage.

If you want to try for better rate later, then at least you'll never do worse than policy you already paid for.

How To Buy Life Insurance After Cancer

If you were diagnosed with cancer, the lower the stage and the longer it's been since your treatment ended, the better the offers will be.

Want to talk to an agent?

Call or text us 800-380-3533, email us or just request a quote using the accurate cancer life quote link directly above and we’ll do our best to get you the best life insurance rate possible with regard to your specific cancer history. 

Using the the accurate quote link above is the best place to start to get an accurate quote.

If you decide to apply, we have an electronic application that takes 5 minutes to complete and for which we can use to have you apply to multiple insurance companies at one time, to get more than one "real" offer...then you can decide which (if any) policy you'd like to accept. 

NOTE: If your overall medical history is excellent otherwise, then qualifying for life insurance as a cancer survivor can be much easier, especially for lower stage cancers.

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