Reports published this week have U.S. obesity rates are over 30% of the people in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. Four years ago there was only one state over 30%. Twenty years ago no state had an obesity rates over 15%. This year Colorado was the only state with a rate under 20%. In Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, Rhode Island and Texas obesity rates rose for the second year in a row.
With life insurance being overweight really doesn’t impact too badly until your blood work begins to spike out of range.
Principal has a very favorable build chart. SBLI, Savings Bank Life of Massachusetts, has a very good chart as well, especially for the standard rate classification. For permanent life insurance John Hancock, MassMutual have very good charts. For those really overweight, Prudential has the most favorable substandard build chart. Here’s a build chart that shows what rate class typically to expect.
If you’ve lost more than 10 pounds in a year, underwriters will likely add back 1/2 your weight. After all, without a sustained effort, many will gain back what they’ve lost.
Image: Wikimedia Commons, artist Sergey Solomko