Life Insurance for Overweight People

Obesity might result in heart diseases, diabetes, angina, respiratory ailments, respiratory issues, hypertension, and various other medical problems. These ailments can effectively shorten your life span. Thus, if you are obese, you should consider purchasing life insurance for overweight individuals. The body weight of an individual certainly affects the premium rates of your life insurance. 

Premium Rates of Life Insurance for Overweight People 

If you are an overweight individual, you need to compromise on your life insurance policy when it comes to premium rates. You can buy life insurance from popular insurance companies but it will be expensive. A life insurance plan for obese individuals might not offer the same kind of benefits that an active person can avail. The plan also comes with a number of exclusions. You are required to pay more premium for the plan you buy compared to a basic life insurance plan. 

Life insurers set the premium rates based on how risky they think an individual is. They determine the risk of the applicant passing away during the tenure of their life insurance plan. Life insurance providers, similarly to health insurers, consider weight as an overall indicator of health. The scale of BMI helps estimate how much your plan will cost. 

Associated Risks with Life Insurance For Overweight People 

• High Blood Pressure 

• Type 2 Diabetes 

• High Cholesterol levels

• Heart stroke 

• Mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety 

• Respiratory problems such as breathing difficulties 

• Heart ailments 

• Physical limitation in performing any activity 

• Body ache 

What is Body Mass Index? 

Body Mass Index or BMI is a measurement that utilizes the person’s height to determine the suitable weight for the individual. Also, BMI accurately estimates the percentage of body fat for that individual. Therefore, an individual with a high BMI has more fat in their bodies. 

A BMI calculator is an offline or online tool that measures the body mass index value. It helps in determining the health status using your BMI score. If your BMI value falls under the category underweight, obese, or overweight. It signifies that one should work on losing weight in case of overweight or obese and on gaining weight in case of underweight category. 

How to Calculate BMI? 

BMI = (Individual’s weight in Kg)/ (Individual’s height in m)2

After calculating the BMI, one can use the following BMI chart for the suitable outcomes. It is recommended to have a body mass index value between 18.5 to 24.9. 

How Does BMI affect your Life Insurance? 

Since BMI indicates the healthiness status of a person’s body, it impacts the life insurance premium rates. A high body mass index means that the person is at more risk of cardio/heart-related ailments and might regularly go to hospitals because of weight-associated problems. Similarly, a person with a low BMI than the average one is also called unhealthy as they may be having some sort of causal illnesses that get diagnosed instantly. The validation provided by the insurers for using BMI to assess the rate is very simple. With a high BMI value, the person has a possibility of making regular visits to the medical clinics because of illnesses, which results in high medical expenses. Thus, the more the estimated expenses on health-associated issues, the more will be the premium rates of life insurance plans. Life insurance for overweight people uses the BMI value to check the health status of body. 

Do Insurers Only Use Overweight as a Health Indicator? 

Insurers not only depend on the body mass index to signify the health status of an individual as there may be other factors also. An individual with a more BMI value might be fit than an individual who smokes frequently. Thus, various other factors should also be taken into thought which are: 

• Age: Younger persons are less likely to be a responsibility to the insurer, so they are mainly provided with good premium charges in comparison to the older individuals. In such cases, the older individuals might appeal to the company to check BMI numbers which can help with decreasing the premium rates of life insurance. 

• Family history: There is a more probability of an individual having a genetic illness that might impact the individual in later stages of their life. For example, Parkinson’s is an illness that jumps from generation to generation and generally affects the person in later stages. Hence, the insurers sometimes ask for a medical history of the family before deciding the rates of premium. 

• Alcohol and tobacco use: If an individual has a past of smoking or chewing tobacco or is a heavy alcohol drinker it impacts the rates of premium. The alcohol and tobacco consumers might have the ideal BMI but their internal organs often are impacted because of substance abuse. Thus, lifestyle selection also affects the premium rates of life insurance plans.