Do you have any life insurance health questions? When you think about getting life insurance, medical history is very important to consider. Do you have any genetic abnormalities or genetic variants? What about lifestyle habits? These factors increase your risks of mortality (death), which lower your ratings, resulting in more expensive premiums.

Many people also think that the only medical history that they have to consider is their immediate family – spouse and children. However, the medical history of your parents and grandparents also is relevant for life insurance. Health questions help figure out your risks for certain disease. For example, some diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart disease are all lifestyle diseases. These are caused primarily by inadequate dietary choices, tobacco use, drug use, lack of exercise, alcohol use, lack of sleep, stress and other personal decisions. Some people do have a genetic predisposition to get these diseases but most do not. That is why when you are considering life insurance, medical history is very important to consider.

Genetic abnormalities, which are known to cause cardiovascular disease, and genetic variants, which are known to cause prostate cancer, show a genetic predisposition for disease. In addition, there are other factors that can result in lowered ratings such as the lifestyle habits mentioned above that are often learned by children early in life watching their parents. Life insurance companies take these risk factors into consideration and include them in mortality tables in order to study the effect of risk factors on age groups and gender. Higher risk factors for cancer or cardiovascular disease will result in a lower rating class with higher premium.

While guidelines vary from one company to the next, it is best to shop around so that you can find the best insurance policy. You may even find a company that does not penalize for family history at all.