Sleep Apnea Raises Insurance Premiums

Those diagnosed with sleep apnea will find the cost of their life insurance and health premiums higher at the next renewal or receive higher quotes when applying for insurance.

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that causes individuals stop breathing for periods of up to 2 minutes, many times each night. It usually occurs during sleep and when it happens, sleep is disrupted.

To understand why it affects insurance premiums, you have to understand have insurance companies price their premiums. Insurance companies are for profit businesses and have to charge high enough premiums to ensure it covers their costs as well as their desired profits.

Under life insurance, individuals are rated on their risks and charged accordingly. This includes factors such as their overall health, any medical conditions they have, their family's history of medical conditions, and any risky lifestyle activities such as skydiving or flying planes.

Those suffering from long term sleep apnea have higher odds of hypertension, heart attacks and mortality. Therefore the insurance company regards those with sleep apnea as a higher risk and has to charge them a higher premium.

Health insurance premiums are charged based upon how often they expect an individual to utilize medical services. Younger, healthier individuals with no medical conditions would receive much low premiums than older individuals with medical problems.

Sleep apnea is a medical condition and therefore health insurance companies expect those that have sleep apnea would utilize more medical services. This is the reason why they are charged higher premiums.

If you had sleep apnea but have been successfully treated for it, a note from you doctor and a discussion with the insurance company can reduce your insurance premiums down to a lower level.

More Sleep Disorder Information

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