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Organ transplantation is a process of moving an organ from one body to another. The person that is donated an organ is called a recipient. Although medicine is improving everyday, insurance companies still consider transplant patients to be risky. According to statistics, kidney is the most often transplanted organ and is closely followed by liver and heart transplantation procedures. Last year 2732 organs transplants were carried out in United Kingdom and 3564 more had their sight restored through cornea surgery. Although these numbers are very small compared to the whole population in Great Britain and worldwide, life insurance is very important for organ recipients and their family members.
What is more, increasing number of people sign for organ donation. Besides 17,751,795 people that agreed to donate their organs after their death and were registered on National Health Service Organ Donor Register there are a lot of people that donate their organs while they are still alive. The recipients are usually their friends, relatives and family members. As a result, these people that donated one of their lungs, kidneys or other organs also may face issues to obtain a life insurance cover for a reasonable price.
People that have undergone and organ transplantation or are only awaiting their surgery often think that it is not possible for them to get a life insurance cover. That is not true since now some life insurance carriers in the market do offer life insurance for these patients. However, there are some exceptions that people have to be aware of.
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“Pulse Insurance”
One of the companies that provide life insurance for transplant patients is “Pulse Insurance”. The main advantage of this company is that it provides a wide range of services whereas most companies specialize only with a narrow segment of transplant patients. Another advantage is that “Pulse Insurance” is a bespoken company. This means that the company discusses every situation with the client separately rather than uses the same approach and rules for all transplant patients. The company offers life insurance for kidney transplants no sooner than one year after the surgery and person can expect a life insurance only two years after the pancreas transplant. Those clients that are only awaiting surgery will be able to get a life insurance cover only after the surgery is completed and the recovery period is over.
The alternatives for life insurance
There are alternatives to a life insurance after the transplant operation. First of all, if a person had a life insurance after the transplant surgery it is strictly advised not to allow the policy to lapse. However, the coverage will not be allowed to increase. There are a lot of comments on internet from people that had an organ transplantation and were not allowed to increase their life insurance cover. If a life insurance policy is too expensive, an alternative to that is to set a life fund where a fixed sum from income can be put aside every month. The third option is to find a job where life insurance is offered as a benefit. There a number of stories online where people were not able to get a private life insurance but found a job that offered a life insurance cover.
Various types of transplants
We compare plans from the leading life insurance providers
From all major organ transplants kidney transplantation is the most leniently considered by life insurance companies. Unfortunately it is almost impossible to get a life insurance for heart or liver transplants. A person can wait for some time until his tests will show better results but even if an insurance company will accept heart or liver transplants it is almost unavoidable that the premiums will be very high. There is a very simple explanation why different organ transplants are treated differently. If a kidney transplant is not successful a person can switch to dialysis. On the other hand, if a heart transplantation is not successful the person simply dies. What is more, life insurance carriers do not want to accept heart or liver transplant because the average lifespan after the transplant is very short. For example, heart transplant patient is expected to live not longer than 5 years.
Life insurance for live donors
A recent survey of several life insurance providers showed that there is a negative impact on life insurance if a person was a live donor. What is more, the survey showed that a considerable part of eligible donors refuse to donate because they fear that they may be discriminated by the insurance companies. However, most life insurance carriers provide the ability to obtain life insurance for people that were live donors. On the other hand, there were numerous cases when live donors faced difficulties when they wanted to change a life insurance provider and were asked to pay high premiums. The costs or surgical procedures and recovery period are covered by the life insurance of the recipient. However, this period is very short. What is more, if the recipient unexpectedly dies, life insurance is annulled and the donor can be left facing huge medical bills. Although, medical and other organizations are fighting for better insurance conditions for live donors it is likely that many of them will face difficulties. As a result, it is advised to make sure that pre-existing life insurance program covers the cost of donation.