What Is Guaranteed Issue Whole Life Insurance? …. and do I qualify?

MEDICAL SECTION

What Is Guaranteed Issue Life Insurance?

Guaranteed issue life insurance is a type of whole life insurance policy that allows you to skip health questions and or undergo a medical exam. You may hear it referred to as guaranteed life insurance or guaranteed acceptance life insurance.

Guaranteed issue policies are a good fit for people who are older and are facing health conditions that would keep them from getting a life insurance policy. If you are between the ages of 50-80, you are guaranteed to be accepted for a policy and cannot be turned down for health or medical reasons.

If you have been turned down for traditional life insurance or have any of the following serious health conditions, a guaranteed issue life policy may be your best option:

• AIDS or HIV
• Alzheimer’s or dementia
• Cancer
• An illness with a life expectancy of three years or more
• Severe Type 2 diabetes - Type 1 included
• Needing an organ or tissue transplant

Sounds great, right? Here’s the catch.

Guaranteed issue life insurance always has a waiting period. If you die during the waiting period, your beneficiaries will not receive the policy’s death benefit (the amount of coverage you applied for). With most policies, the waiting period is two years. With some, it's three years.

This is NOT some kind of scam.

In fact, if you die during the waiting period (usually two or three years), the insurance company will repay (to your beneficiaries) all your insurance premiums plus interest, usually at a rate of 10%.

Your beneficiaries will still get something; it will just be less than you’d like. Insurance companies put this waiting period in place because, if they didn’t, everyone could apply for insurance on their deathbed and pay a few hundred dollars to secure a $25,000 benefit for their family. No insurance company could stay in business this way. Guaranteed issue life insurance provides coverage to sick people who otherwise couldn’t get it.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Guaranteed issue life insurance is a small whole life insurance policy with no health qualifications.
• It pays a cash death benefit of $2,000 to $25,000 to the insured’s beneficiaries.
• Guaranteed issue life insurance does not pay death benefits during the first two or three years the policy is in force, but it does return the policy’s premiums plus 10% interest if the insured dies during this period.
• Guaranteed issue policies are designed for people with serious health conditions that keep them from buying policies that offer immediate death benefits.
• Compared with other types of life insurance, guaranteed policies generally have high premiums relative to their death benefits because their policyholders are in poor health.
• 

HEALTH SECTION

Magnesium – Are You Getting Enough? Low Magnesium linked to Hypertension



Dr. David Brownstein, M.D., writes:

Approximately 75 million people in the United States over age 20 have high blood pressure.

After age 55, it’s estimated that Americans face a 90% chance of developing it.

The “good” news is that a doctor can diagnose high blood pressure (also called hypertension) in just a few minutes. All too typically, the doctor will then prescribe an antihypertensive medication and advise the patient to take it for the rest of his or her life. In fact, this drug treatment is often not needed.

Magnesium helps to relax the smooth muscles of blood vessels, resulting in less resistance to blood flow, which helps to lower blood pressure. The mineral also reduces nerve and muscle excitability. In addition, magnesium helps optimize circulating levels of the hormones norepinephrine and serotonin, and levels of nitric oxide.

Nitric oxide is a powerful vasodilator — a substance that opens blood vessels for better flow. It is interesting to note that nearly all synthetic anti-hypertensive medications work to reduce blood pressure by a similar mechanism. However, all of those drugs are associated with severe adverse effects.

Diarrhea, the only adverse side effect of magnesium, is easily solved by lowering the dose. Studies have clearly shown the benefits of magnesium. One found that 625 mg per day caused a significant decline in blood pressure.

Diuretics, the most commonly prescribed anti-hypertensive drugs, accelerate magnesium loss and lead to deficiency. In addition, lack of magnesium hinders the use of potassium in cells. But oddly enough, diuretic drugs also lower potassium levels.

THE AUTHOR:  Dr. David Brownstein, M.D., editor of the Natural Way to Health newsletter, is a board-certified family physician and one of the nation’s foremost practitioners of holistic medicine. In addition to his practice, Dr. Brownstein has lectured internationally to physicians and is the author of six very popular books.