by Ashley
It’s no secret that husband and I have been in the process of getting life insurance (see related posts here and here)
My life insurance was all wrapped up and squared away by the middle of last month. Husband’s insurance was also done and we were just waiting for his final contract to arrive in the mail. Or so we thought…
We’d received an email saying that his insurance would be more expensive than the original quote due to his weight (phooey!!! I had received the same email, too). But then when we got a document in the mail from the insurance company, it wasn’t his final contract. Instead, it was a request for more information.
More information, still!
Even though husband had given a thorough medical history and completely covered his mystery medical condition that knocked him out of commission for a couple months at the end of 2013, now they want more information. And by “more information,” I mean that they want his full medical records from this period of time.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
When he went to the Mayo Clinic we had to locate copies of the discs containing his scans and that was insanely difficult. I can’t imagine what it will be like to get a complete record of all this information. While sick, husband went to 3 different Tucson hospitals (and was admitted 2 separate times), had a consultation at the Mayo Clinic, was seen as an outpatient with a neurologist, and had a myriad of blood work tests run at a separate facility. So all of these records are in different places. In addition to just the annoyance of physically going to all these places to retrieve records, let’s talk about the bulk of information that we’ll be requesting. I mean, it will require an actual BOX to send this off to the insurance company. NO WAY it will fit in any type of envelope or padded mailer. It would be easier if we could simply fill out the release form allowing these different entities to mail/email information directly to the insurance company, but the company has requested records from us. Maybe we can work around that and simply say the records will come from the medial entities, but its just going to be a cluster trying to get everything submitted. And then what? Will he even get covered or will they look at everything and reject him after the FOUR MONTHS worth of hoop-jumping we’ve been doing? Why is this all even necessary? They know his final diagnosis (atypical meningitis), so why can’t they just use that to determine cost and coverage rather than requesting every medical record he had from this time? HUGE pain in the arse! HUGE!
So the saga continues with the life insurance. In the meantime, at least I’ve got my coverage in place! I take comfort from the fact that if I had an untimely departure my family would have the funds necessary to survive and even thrive. Of course I would like for my husband to be covered as well, but for some reason I tend to feel like I could take care of myself if he were to have an untimely departure. I know that’s probably naïve and immature, but he’s more likely to try to do everything on his own (and therefore need the financial assistance from life insurance), whereas I’m more likely to simply run back to Austin (I could continue to work my contract jobs), live with family for a bit, and get back on my feet. Though the money would certainly help, we wouldn’t fall apart without it. Unfortunately, when hubs had his mystery illness he really thought he was dying – it was very scary – so I had a bit of time to think about what the future might look like for me and the girls if we were left alone (as weird/morbid/sad as that sounds).
Ick – not a fun topic of conversation! But a necessary one, nonetheless. Anyway, we press on with this life insurance drama.
Hi, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at heart. Lover of running, blogging, and all things cheeeeese. Freshly 40, married mother of two, working in academia. Trying to finally (finally!) pay off that ridiculous 6-digit student loan debt!
I have a feeling the insurance company is just waiting to get these records and then quote you a price that is so high that it wouldn’t even pay to have insurance or just not cover your dh at all.
Could you even try another company or does it seem that this is the only one that might cover him. Good luck, Cheryl
Yea, i was going to see if it was possible to try another one or if it’s too much stress. Also, isn’t there something out there for self employed people banding together and forming their own type of “group insurance” which diversifies risk for the insurance company and saves the individual money. I might be dreaming but i think i have come across something like that in the past – might be worth researching.
Ugh. growing up. so many unfun things to think about – but better than burying your head in the sand.
Good luck
I went through this with my husband. It was an 8-month review process and he had no odd medical history except for being quite bit overweight. In the end they denied on that premise alone (which we suspected they would). But, why couldn’t they just tell us that up front? After a year my husband lost over 75 pounds and we reapplied and he was approved with no significant problems after a 3-4 month review. Keep at it! It is important but an insanely frustrating process!
Is there a number to call or an agent to discuss this with? Getting on the phone and talking through what they need, what is likely to happen and any other questions is the way to go. Insurance companies exist to make money for the shareholders so this makes sense to me from that perspective no matter how frustrating it is for you.
i gotta say, your struggles with things like insurance, getting paid on time, daycare, and I can’t remember what else, make for a pretty sobering view of the world of self employment. (Given that many employers often have group benefits for health, life, dependent care etc.)
True that! : )
There are lots of pros and cons of self-employment. Pro: getting to work in my yoga pants at night when the kids are in bed from the comfort of my couch. Con: Not getting paid for 3 months. It really would be interesting to try to assess all of the financial implications and see how they compare (I’m sure this must have been done somewhere already). I definitely make more being self-employed than I could at any full-time position in our area (most of which pay in the 30-40k range for a full 40-hour work week). But then we have to pay out of pocket for our life insurance, health insurance, dental care, vision care, dependent care, etc etc etc etc. Not to mention paying our own taxes and setting up our own retirement (and no company match). All of those things really add up!!