But women and men diagnosed with breast cancer are not eligible to purchase new life insurance policies for some years. This position statement therefore focuses on what happens when survivors apply for life insurance following a diagnosis of breast cancer. A total of 42 companies completed the survey, for a response rate of 63 per cent. Breast cancer survivors applying for individual policies will likely be offered policies at a substandard or special class rate, which results in higher premiums . Most insurance companies will attempt to insure breast cancer survivors by requesting that reinsurance companies underwrite the policy.
Reinsurance companies are umbrella insurers that tend to insure higher risk applicants.
While most insurance companies automatically turn to reinsurance companies, it is important to ask if this step has been taken. Insurance companies treat the staging of the tumor and the initial pathology report as the most significant factors in predicting prognosis. They believe that generally, the older the patient, the more years since diagnosis, and the lower the stage at diagnosis, the better the risk. The survivor will still have to pay a higher premium, but those who are younger, with a more recent diagnosis and tumors at a higher stage, will pay even more. The amount of insurance also affects the amount of information required by the insurance company.