As noted on our home page, no medical exam insurance trades off benefits and premiums in exchange for not proving your insurability through a medical exam. Should you take advantage of these plans?
For most people in normal good health, the answer is no. You should instead save your money and increase your benefits, take a medical exam, prove your insurability, and accept a fully underwritten policy.
If you’ve been declined, or you are reasonably confident that you will be declined, then a no medical exam policy is quite possibly the way to go. Being declined means no insurance at all, so access to these no medical exam policies is a great way to easily get an insurance policy. However don’t assume that you will be declined for a medical condition, you should have a conversation with an insurance broker first. In many cases conditions that consumers assume will lead to a decline are actually accepted by insurance companies at regular premiums.
If you are rated or expect to be rated, again this is a situation where perhaps you should consider going with a no medical exam policy. For example, assume that regular insurance premiums for a fully underwritten policy are $50. If you were rated 3X regular, then your premiums would be roughly $150. And lets assume that the no medical exam insurance premiums are $110. If you can qualify for a regular policy, clearly there’s a great savings to be had in taking a medical exam. But if you’re going to be rated 3 times, it may actually be cheaper to go with the no medical exam policies (and of course easier) over the fully underwritten policy.
The old refrain is that everyone’s different. With medical conditions and no medical exam insurance this is very true – there’s no general answer as to which products are better. Consult with a broker to get an estimate of what your options are. It’s worth noting that brokers can pre-shop insurance companies to get an estimate of what a fully underwritten policy might cost, before you even apply.
In summary, if you are declined, no medical exam insurance is a viable alternative. If you’re rated, or expect to be, you should review both underwritten and no medical exam insurance and compare premiums and benefits. And if you’re in regular good health, you should go with a fully underwritten policy, prove your good health and save the premiums and enjoy the additional benefits.