Cerebral vascular accident (CVA) or stroke claim around 795,000 of victims each year. The definition of a CVA is the sudden death of brain cells due to a lack of oxygen caused by blockage of blood flow or rupture of an artery to the brain. Symptoms are a sudden loss of speech, weakness, or paralysis of one side of the body. these are just a few symptoms of a stroke. Stroke is the 5th leading cause of death in the United States. The Mexican American population has a higher risk. Some of the questions I get asked is does life insurance cover stroke? Or is there life insurance for stroke patients? Yes! you can get life insurance.
Hi, my name is Mitch Winstead with Allstar Senior Benefits. Our toll-free number is 866 598 8170 or 910 538-4547. my email address is Mitch@all starseniorbenefits.com. Our website is www.allstarseniorbenefits.com Call me today for your “no pressure” quote.
Strokes cause a lot of disappointment, anger frustration to their victims. In my first profession as a physical therapist assistant, I have helped many people rehab after they’ve had a stroke. Not all Strokes are created equal. some people especially when they’re younger can have a stroke and only feel the effects for a few weeks a few days for a few months. Then they recover like they never had a stroke before. Other people especially when they’re older are not so lucky. I have personally seen people who have terrible circumstances after they’ve had a stroke. if you could just imagine A woman or a man that has provided for their family all their lives. Now after they’ve had a stroke is disabled and have to have someone to wait on her or him. I could not imagine having a stroke and having to go through some of the problems and difficulties that I’ve seen people face. some of them have taken it better than others. some get very angry and depressed because they cannot walk they cannot feed themselves anymore and some of them may have to be in a wheelchair for the rest of their lives. One of the worst scenarios that can happen is that someone has just broken a hip and had it repaired by surgery and then has a stroke. this happens to more people and you think.
I have had the pleasure to work with some of these people and they put on a brave face and did the best they could with their rehab. I couldn’t always meet their goals but I hope I had helped them in some way. I had one gentleman that he and his wife love to dance. they would go out each weekend and meet with her friends and dance the night away. since he has had a stroke he is in a wheelchair And obviously cannot dance any longer. I saw some of the videos of him and his wife dancing with their friends and it was fun to watch. Most of the time when a person has had a stroke they are limited on one side or the other. what complicates this is that they may have swallowing difficulties and they may aspirate and because of this they are limited to a liquid food diet until they are able to swallow better. Now let’s talk about life insurance if you have had a stroke. if you are applying for whole life insurance, it is usually a 2-3 year lookback period before the insurance company will accept you.
Stroke and life insurance. The insurance carrier will want to see that your condition has stabilized. This means no trips to the doctor that concern your stroke. no changes in medicines and hospitalizations or emergency room visits. After this 2- 3 year period is over then the insurance companies will accept your application. if you want Insurance before that, you can apply for a guaranteed issue policy. This is still a whole life policy. However, you would be applying for a graded life insurance policy. This means you will still get a whole life policy but during the first two to three years, your beneficiary will get 100 + 10% of the premiums you paid in for those two to three years. After the 2-3 period is over, Your beneficiary would receive the full face amount of the policy. So if you apply for $10,000 of Life Insurance after the to 3 year period, $10,000 is what your beneficiary would receive. for more details on this contact Allstar Senior Benefits, we are experts in the field of whole life insurance. whole life insurance is sometimes called permanent insurance. It lasts your whole life. it is different than term insurance. term insurance is only for different terms such as 10, 20, and 30 year periods. After these term periods are over with you would have to get a different policy because the term Has ran out.
With a whole life insurance policy, your insurance policy starts building cash value after 18 to 24 months. This is a good thing because you can use it in two different ways. you can borrow against your policy to pay some of your premiums if you get in a financial rut. you also can borrow money to pay for an unexpected car repair for home repair etc. You must be careful that you pay the money back into the policy otherwise when you pass away, your beneficiary will not get the full face amount of your policy. The benefits of your policy never decrease and your premiums never increase. If you do want to apply for term life insurance, you may have to pay more for your term life insurance policy. This means that you may receive a table rating or a class rating that allows you to get the policy but you would be putting a different rate class. it is hard to speculate what that table or rate class rating would be until you actually applied for the policy. so for example, you are in good health but you have had a stroke and it is past a two-year period, Your chances of getting a better rate would be good. if you had a stroke and you have other conditions such as high blood pressure high cholesterol for diabetes, then you’re going to be put in a higher rate class. It is important for you to talk with Allstar Senior Benefits and let us help you find the best rate.
Our agency has over 34 years of experience in helping people just like you. Our agency is available nationwide. It sometimes goes without saying that when applying for any type of life insurance it is best to apply for it at the earliest age possible. This is the best way to get the lowest cost rates available. In this economy, people want to save as much money as possible. The cost of a funeral is around $7500. So you at least want to get a policy that covers your own funeral cost. If you want to leave a love gift for your loved ones then people usually get a higher face amount. People do not realize that for pennies a day, you can give your loved ones a gift and finance their future. Also, you want to be able to pay off any bills that you have. This could be a car payment, credit card debt or any personal loans, etc. That is the financially responsible thing to do. If you apply for term insurance, you should apply for at least a 100,000. Some life insurance experts, recommend that you should have 7 times your salary. Think about it if the male head of the household dies this takes away his salary that could affect the mortgage payments, car payments and the cost of living each month and each year. This adds up quickly. Plus needless to say, a death takes an emotional toll on the family. When you are looking for an agent/broker I recommend asking that person if he or she knows about the “funeral rule” Most agents won’t. Knowing this information could save people thousands of dollars. It is something the funeral home does not want you to know about.
Why are the life insurance companies decline people who have had strokes in the past? Why do they decline a person who has had a stroke in the past year? There are many different reasons. There is a potential for someone to have another stroke and pass away. There is a high percentage of a recurring stroke. Why? There usually is a good reason why a person has a stroke. If it is a blood clot, the patient is put on medication to prevent the blood clot. However, the medication does not always work as it should. Plus if the person had a severe stroke, he or she may be limited with activity/ exercise and be at a higher risk to have a fatal stroke. Also if the stroke was due to a rupture of the vascular area in the brain then that person could die very easily with a second stroke. I had a patient one time that his stroke was caused by a piece of cholesterol that broke loose in one the arteries in his brain. That can be kind of scary. Some of us have high cholesterol and if the cholesterol breaks loose and gets stuck in the wrong place, a CVA can occur. If a person has a mild or medium stroke he or she might have a complication with a blood clot in one of his or her legs that causes a pulmonary embolism. Or has a problem with swallowing that blocks the airway. If a person has a large stroke, it can be frequently fatal in the first few days or weeks. Some people develop brain swelling that can put them in a coma. Also with large strokes, usually the person is bedridden and that brings on a whole host of medical complications such as blood clots in the veins, bedsores, pneumonia, and stiffening in the limbs.
Muscles in your body become weaker. The body starts to rapidly break down. Everything can start working against you. Sometimes people who have large strokes end up on breathing machines or need brain surgery to relieve pressure. I remember handing out a list to some of my patients on how the body starts breaking down if a person does not get out of bed. It is fascinating. The digestive system starts with problems, kidneys start working improperly. The lungs are not as efficient. The circulatory and heart start having problems. It is almost like once on thing starts going wrong, everything else follows. I had one gentleman as a patient that half of his right side of his head was caved in. The doctors had to relieve the pressure on the brain and that was the end result. When I was helping him walk, he had to wear a helmet because if he fell, and hit his head on that side, he would probably die.
It is important to start rehab right away. This includes nursing, occupational therapy to teach you how to dress, tie your shoes and eat and go to the bathroom and take a shower. If one side of your body is affected, you will have to relearn how to do all those things again with one arm and leg. This type of therapy could take months or even up to a year if you have had a large stroke. Then you might get the services of a CNA that can help you get a shower and dress until you are able to complete tasks on your own. A Physical Therapist can help you with bed mobility, transferring out of bed into a wheelchair or chair. Then with gait training, neuromuscular education and strengthen exercise and coordination. You might be in a hospital bed for a while and even a wheelchair. This all sounds bleak but there is hope. Most people can walk again and start dressing and exercising to get stronger. One of the most important things to do is get up out of bed and sit up in a chair to build endurance. If you lie in bed as mentioned before, your muscles will atrophy- meaning get weaker and decrease in size. Most people do fairly well after a stroke with their rehab.
The physical therapist can help teach you and your family, aide, some of the exercises for a home program. Even after the physical therapist has discharged a patient, people still make progress if they work on their home exercise program. It is sad to say that I have had a few patients that just did not want to put forth the effort it takes to get better. They just stop trying. I had a patient that I saw at her home for a little while that was like that. I moved on from that job and I was filling in for a therapist at a local nursing home and saw her lying in bed. I ran into her daughter and she told me- if she would have just done what you had told her to do she might not be here. One thing I do want to mention is a TIA or mini-stroke. It is a transient ischemic attack. Sometimes after I have been working with someone and they are making progress with their physical therapy, I would return to their home and they acted like another person. Sometimes most of the progress they have made is gone. In this case, they have had a mini-stroke. The good news is that most mini-strokes have a temporary effect on progress. The downside is if the patient continues having them it could be a cause for concern.
This concludes this article on a cerebrovascular accident. Written by Mitch Winstead at Allstar Senior Benefits. Our toll-free number is 866-598-8170 or 910-538-4547. Email is mitch@allstarseniorbenefits.com. Our website is www.allstarseniorbenefits.com Call today for your “no pressure” quote.
