Get Life Insurance While You're Young!

When I was in my early 20s, I was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis. Autoimmune hepatitis is a luck-of-the-draw chronic condition that I did not catch, and that I cannot pass onto anyone else. It is an overactive immune system that targets my liver for fun. This was totally unexpected since nobody else in my family has this condition.

The good news, is that the prognosis is good, and my health is good as well. I just need to take a few little pills every day to suppress my immune system, so that it doesn't get carried away and beat the tar out of an otherwise healthy organ. I have had this condition for almost twenty years, and I have never really had symptoms or any illness as a result.

A few years after my diagnosis, I bought my first condominium. I was as proud as punch, and was surprised, nervous and excited to be signing my life away in exchange for my new townhouse condo in the SE of Calgary. When the bank asked me if I would like to apply for life insurance, to ensure that the mortgage was paid out in the event of my death, it sounded like the responsible choice to make, so I filled out the form, and quite frankly, did not give it too much thought.

What I didn't anticipate was getting denied for life insurance. That, my friends, was my first lesson in life insurance. I was blown away that I had a disease that had no symptoms, an excellent prognosis, and a minor inconvenience of glugging down a few pills to keep everything in check, and the insurance company denied me.

The first time, I went through the hoops, and got my hepatologist to write a letter and the insurance company still denied me. I still apply for it from every insurance salesperson I come across that believes that they can get me approved, and as I write this, almost forty years old, I assure you, that I am unable to get life insurance.

I know a few people that have life insurance that they qualified for younger in life, and once you have it, they cannot take it away. However, once you have a few things wrong with you as you age, you are pretty much hooped from qualifying for a new policy

My advice to anyone with kids - insure your children. I know it may feel like a morbid thing to do, but you never know what life has brewing for you right around the corner. This liver condition ran nowhere in my family, so there was no way to anticipate whether I would have this chronic condition. If you insure you children now, then down the road if they need coverage, the policy you set up for them cannot be taken away. Therefore, at the very least, whatever you give them, may be better than what they can get on their own if life throws them an expected chronic condition to deal with.