abnormal pap smear and disability insurance

[anl415]

i'm a female surgery resident currently in the process of looking into disability insurance. i had an abnormal pap smear last year, underwent a colposcopy, which just found "chronic cervicitis" with nothing more to do. i'm worried this will affect my medical underwriting--has anyone found this to be an issue? thanks in advance!

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[VA Hopeful Dr]

It should not be a problem. Worse case the insurance company puts a clause in there saying the insurance won't cover you for cervical cancer.

 

[MD Financial Services Scott]

You probably will end up with an exclusion but it will be important for you to do 2 things. First find out if the institution that you are working for has what is called a GSI disability plan. The GSI stands for Guaranteed Standard Issue, it allows a contract to be issued without any underwriting thus no exclusion. The main thing here is that if you have been declined by another carrier then the GSI carrier won't take you so it is important that you find out if that is an option BEFORE applying to any other carrier. If you don't have that as an option then you should do what is called an 'informal application process', it is where the carrier will evaluate your case without having a formal application thus if they don't want to insure you they are not declining you and you never have to say you were declined because you were not. Any insurance rep that really knows what they are doing will suggest this process to you since this process will let you know what to expect out of underwriting and which carriers have the best possible outcome for your case.

 

[anl415]

Thank you!! Would subsequent normal pap smears decrease my chances of getting an exclusion? I feel like an exclusion for cervical cancer is a pretty big thing to try to avoid

 

[MD Financial Services Scott]

It would decrease but it would not eliminate. The carrier would probably want to see a couple of years of clean pap's to either not put an exclusion on a policy or to remove one from an existing policy, which is certainly possible.