Life insurance when health isn't great

[maize]

Does anyone have experience buying life insurance for someone whose health history isn't great?

[Jean in Newcastle]

There are lots of ads now for life insurance that requires "no health exams".  But they are for people over 55, I think? 

[maize]

12 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

There are lots of ads now for life insurance that requires "no health exams".  But they are for people over 55, I think? 

Even when exams aren't required there are health questions, and insurance doesn't have to pay if they investigate a claim.and the person lied about their health.

[ScoutTN]

14 hours ago, maize said:

Does anyone have experience buying life insurance for someone whose health history isn't great?

We have tried. Dh is essentially uninsurable, though we do have a little coverage through his work. 
Everything we have checked into is little coverage for a premium  higher than we can afford. If Dh dies before our kids are launched, and before I have FT work, we are in big trouble. 

[maize]

12 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

We have tried. Dh is essentially uninsurable, though we do have a little coverage through his work. 
Everything we have checked into is little coverage for a premium  higher than we can afford. If Dh dies before our kids are launched, and before I have FT work, we are in big trouble. 

That's basically the situation we are in.

[Bootsie]

It depends upon what the health issues are.  If it is a health issue that is likely to result in medical costs but not likely to cause premature death, it is easier to get life insurance than if it is a health issue that is correlated with premature death.  When there are underlying health issues that make obtaining life insurance difficult, a person may qualify for a policy through their employer.  Sometimes there will be a fairly basic policy through the employer and the employee can purchase more without an exam if they do it when they are first employeed.  

[ScoutTN]

1 hour ago, Bootsie said:

It depends upon what the health issues are.  If it is a health issue that is likely to result in medical costs but not likely to cause premature death, it is easier to get life insurance than if it is a health issue that is correlated with premature death.  When there are underlying health issues that make obtaining life insurance difficult, a person may qualify for a policy through their employer.  Sometimes there will be a fairly basic policy through the employer and the employee can purchase more without an exam if they do it when they are first employeed.  

Dh gets 2x his salary automatically.

[Carol in Cal.]

The only way I know of to get a good sized policy in that case is to go to work for a company with it as a benefit AND have it be the kind that guarantees that you can take it with you when you leave the company.  I don’t think that that second part is very commonly available anymore though.

[Jenny in Florida]

My employer provides some basic coverage for me, but I was turned down when I tried to purchase increased coverage. No health exam, but they turned me down flat after I listed my medical history and current issues. Because I am not the primary breadwinner in the family and we don't have little kids, I basically dropped the idea at that point.