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Life Insurance With a Medical Condition in Canada
By Parvesh Benning, Independent Life Insurance Broker, Licensed since 2007
First we start fully underwritten. Simplified comes next only if your health would affect that, and guaranteed is for major health concerns.
Before I submit anything, I contact the underwriting departments anonymously, without your name attached, so they can tell me how they will likely underwrite. That way we find out before an application goes in and without anything on your record. On one recent file, a non-smoker in his mid-50s with a heart attack and stent more than ten years back, plus sleep apnea, seven insurers gave seven different answers for the same $500,000 of 10-year term. The tentative monthly quotes ran from $174 to $522, and one would not offer at all. A medical condition does not automatically mean you can’t get life insurance in Canada. This page covers what insurers look at, what a rating costs, and where to find the guide for your condition.
Updated: October 5, 2026
Life Insurance With a Medical Condition in Canada
By Parvesh Benning, Independent Life Insurance Broker, Licensed since 2007
First we start fully underwritten. Simplified comes next only if your health would affect that, and guaranteed is for major health concerns.
Before I submit anything, I contact the underwriting departments anonymously, without your name attached, so they can tell me how they will likely underwrite. That way we find out before an application goes in and without anything on your record. On one recent file, a non-smoker in his mid-50s with a heart attack and stent more than ten years back, plus sleep apnea, seven insurers gave seven different answers for the same $500,000 of 10-year term. The tentative monthly quotes ran from $174 to $522, and one would not offer at all. A medical condition does not automatically mean you can’t get life insurance in Canada. This page covers what insurers look at, what a rating costs, and where to find the guide for your condition.
Updated: October 5, 2026
I come across it many times where one carrier will decline, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t five others that will approve, and approve favourably. It’s disheartening when you get a decline from one place. A lot of this is understanding the market and what’s out there.
I’ve been doing this for 25 years and I’ve dealt with many different health conditions. Because I deal with almost 20 providers and have their underwriting guidelines, sometimes I’m almost able to tell you up front what it’s going to be, just based on the situation.
The short answer
It does affect things, but it does not close the door. What changes is which of these three routes you end up on.
Where we start
Fully underwritten
The insurer asks every health question and may want a nurse visit or a doctor’s report. Usually the lowest cost if you qualify.
Next, if your health would affect that
Simplified issue
No nurse visit, but they still ask a lot of questions and your answers are binding. It generally costs more.
For major health concerns
Guaranteed issue
No health questions. Smaller amounts, and on the plans I use the full benefit is limited for the first two years.
Go straight to
Can I Get Life Insurance If I Have a Medical Condition?
Yes, in many cases you can get life insurance with a medical condition in Canada. Basically we are trying to find the best solution for you, and what it comes down to is whether there is a viable solution that makes sense to put coverage in place. With almost 20 companies to go to, there often is. In my experience the details on your file matter more than the name of the condition.
Insurers are finicky when it comes to any sort of change. These are the five questions that moved the answer on files I have actually sent.
They ask
How did it happen?
On a real file
On a stent file, the first thing one underwriter asked me was whether the heart attack came first, or whether they found he needed the stent before there was ever an episode. Same stent. Two different files.
They ask
How recent is it?
On a real file
One underwriting desk put a file at borderline standard to 150%, meaning anywhere from the regular price to about one and a half times it. The two reasons it gave were a recent sleep apnea diagnosis and a recent change in treatment for anxiety it described as otherwise stable.
They ask
Has a medication changed?
On a real file
Three of my files, three different waits before applying made sense.
60 days
after a cholesterol dose increase
About 6 months
after an anxiety medication change
1 year
after a newly prescribed cholesterol medication
It depends on the medication and the insurer. I keep a separate page on medications that affect life insurance.
They ask
Is anything still being investigated?
On a real file
Out of almost 20 companies I deal with, every provider, fully underwritten or simplified, will ask if there is pending testing, and they will essentially postpone any decision until it is completed. Routine annual testing is a different thing. One desk told me in writing that if more heart monitors were ordered after the three-month one, the application would likely be postponed until the investigation ended.
They ask
What else is on the file?
On a real file
The way I explain it: a single heart attack on its own is one kind of file, and it tends to look better as time passes. A heart attack plus diabetes plus blood pressure medication gets read as compounded risk, which is a different conversation.
From there an insurer lands on one of four answers. Only one of them is a no. If the wording is new to you, I explain life insurance risk classes on their own page.
Standard
Regular price. The condition is on your file and does not change the premium.
Real file: a small hole-in-the-heart finding with no rhythm problem. The early read pointed to a standard offer, and the real cost was time waiting on a cardiologist’s report.
Rated
Approved, at a higher premium. A 150% rating means about one and a half times the standard price.
Real file: atrial fibrillation treated with two ablations. Approved for $1,000,000 at 150%, after a different insurer had declined him.
Postponed
Not a no. The insurer wants a test finished or some time to pass before it decides.
Real file: a heart muscle condition diagnosed a month earlier, with a monitor and stress test still pending. They postpone. I’m telling you that’s what they’ll do.
Declined
One insurer’s no. It is not the whole market’s answer.
Real file: two recent strokes plus diabetes, early 70s. Seven insurers I checked would all decline, so a guaranteed issue policy, which asks no health questions, was the route.
These are individual files, not predictions. The same condition can land differently on a different file.
A lot of the time my concern is not getting an approval. My concern is a rating, because a rating is where they deem your risk profile to be higher and you pay for it. Which of the three routes that points to is the next section.
If a decline has already happened, start with what to do after being denied life insurance.
Fully Underwritten, Simplified or Guaranteed Issue: Which Fits a Medical Condition?
Typically speaking, there’s three buckets: a fully underwritten bucket, a simplified bucket and a guaranteed issue bucket. A medical file starts in the first one, because that is usually the least expensive coverage if you qualify. Simplified comes in when your health history would hurt that offer, and guaranteed issue is there for major health concerns. What you give up as you move down is coverage amount.
Bucket 1, where a file starts
Fully underwritten
Most coverage: $1,000,000 and well beyond
The insurer asks every question under the moon. Sometimes that means a nurse visit or a doctor’s report, depending on your age, the amount and your answers. Here is what the medical exam tests for.
On my files
A $5,000,000 file I worked could only go this way. No simplified plan I use goes that high.
First two years
No waiting period on the benefit.
Bucket 2, if your health would affect bucket 1
Simplified issue
Most coverage: up to $750,000 on the plans below
Simplified is no nurse visit, but they still ask a lot of questions. It is still underwritten, and the answers you give are binding.
Assumption Life Platinum Protection
Up to $750,000 to age 50, then $500,000 to age 75. Full benefit from issue.
Canada Protection Plan Simplified Elite
Up to $500,000 to age 60, then $350,000 to age 80. Full benefit from issue.
iA Access Life Immediate Plus
Up to $500,000. Full benefit from issue.
Bucket 3, for major health concerns
Guaranteed issue
Most coverage: up to $100,000 on the plans below
As long as you’re between 18 and 75, and you’re applying up to the carrier’s maximum, you qualify on health. There are no health questions. You still have to meet the carrier’s age and residency rules.
Manulife Guaranteed Issue Life
$100,000 to age 70, then $50,000 to age 75.
Canada Protection Plan Guaranteed Acceptance Life
$50,000, issued to age 75.
Assumption Life Bronze Protection
$50,000 to age 75, then $25,000 to age 80.
iA Access Life Guaranteed Access
$50,000. Reached through the Access Life application, not applied for on its own.
On all four, a death from natural causes in the first two years returns the premiums paid, not the coverage amount. After those two years, you get full coverage.
Simplified is also not one product. The simplified insurers I use build it as steps, and a yes to certain questions moves you down a step at the same company: a lower maximum, and a wait on the full benefit. This is how one of them is built.
iA Access Life, step by step
Immediate Plus: up to $500,000
Pays the full amount from issue.
Deferred Plus: up to $350,000
A natural death in the first two years returns your premiums plus 3% interest.
Deferred: up to $100,000
Same two-year rule. Permanent coverage only.
Guaranteed Access: up to $50,000
No health questions. A natural death in the first two years returns your premiums, with no interest.
Accidental death pays the full amount from issue on every step.
That is why the wording matters more on a simplified application than anywhere else. What I tell clients: these are worded exactly as they appear on the application, so answer them as written.
Asked in writing, two insurers
Is fatty liver on its own a “no” on your simplified application?
Beneva
Confirmed it is, where there is no cirrhosis, no hepatitis B or C, no chronic pancreatitis and no repeated acute pancreatitis.
Assumption Life
Confirmed the same, and added that its application has no question on fatty liver itself.
For more on the two no-medical buckets, I compare simplified issue and guaranteed issue side by side, go through five no medical plans in detail, and you can get no medical life insurance quotes here.
How Much More Does Life Insurance Cost With a Medical Condition?
It depends on whether you are rated, and a rating is a multiple. An offer at 275% is a multiple of 2.75, essentially, on the standard premium, and 150% is one and a half times. If you are approved at standard, a medical condition costs you nothing extra. For a 45-year-old man who doesn’t smoke, $500,000 of 20-year term starts from $70 per month at standard based on current carrier rates, so a 150% rating works out to about $102.
Male, 45, non-smoker, $500,000, 20-year term, per month
Fully underwritten, by rating
Simplified issue, by product
$70
Standard, starting from
$86
Rated 125%
$94
Beneva Simplified Term Life 20
$102
Rated 150%
$117
Assumption Life Platinum Protection Term 20
$119
Rated 175%
$133
Canada Protection Plan Simplified Elite 20 Year Term
$135
Rated 200%
$184
Rated 275%
Rated figures are illustrations worked from the standard rate, not quotes, and nobody can tell you your rating from a diagnosis alone. Simplified figures are current rates for those products; each has its own health questions, and all three pay the full benefit from issue. Based on current carrier rates, illustrative only, subject to underwriting and change.
Read across and you can see why the route is a pricing question as much as a health one. Each simplified plan sits just under a rating step. If a fully underwritten offer comes back heavier than that step, the simplified plan is the cheaper policy. The catch is you have to be able to answer that plan’s questions.
So what I could have done off the bat on one heart file was gone to a simplified policy. He qualified for it. The reason why I didn’t jump to that one is it’s more expensive, and I had thought that going through the process we would ideally get a better offer. The insurer approved it, but with a risk rating of 275%. In practical terms that doesn’t make sense to accept, because a simplified policy was much cheaper, so that is what he took. It is just a case where simplified pricing was better for the client.
The other charge: a flat extra
$5 × 300 = $1,500
One insurer’s tentative answer on a breast cancer history about five years out was a rating of at least 200% plus a flat extra of $5 for one year. A flat extra is charged per $1,000 of coverage, so on $300,000 that is $1,500 added in the first year only.
A rating is not the end of the conversation on cost either. Two things I have done on rated files, and what each one gave up:
Saved: $12 a month for the full 27 years, on a $1,000,000 policy rated 150%.
Gave up: about six weeks of premium, paid for time that had already passed.
A shorter term
Saved: enough to make a rated premium workable.
Gave up: ten years of protection. The 20-year term was amended to a 10-year.
For the standard side of this, with no rating, I keep current numbers on what a 20-year term costs in Canada. How the rating gets found out before you apply is next.
What Happens Before You Apply With a Medical Condition
I wouldn’t blindly send an application. With a preliminary assessment, we give the insurers as many details as possible up front, with nothing in it that identifies you, and ask how they would likely underwrite it. I simply say, I have a male, this age, this is the profile. How would you underwrite this? I like to send that to two or three carriers just to hear feedback, because it’s better to have that feedback prior to applying than just applying and getting a rating.
Step 1
You tell me the details
Diagnosis and dates, treatment, every medication and when the dose last changed, recent tests, height and weight.
Step 2
It goes out with no name
The same summary to each underwriting desk, starting with fully underwritten.
Step 3
A week to ten days
That is how long the answers can take to come back. They are tentative, not final.
Step 4
Then you choose where to apply
Usually the company that came back best for your file. Or we look at simplified next.
Here is what that looked like on one recent file.
One file, seven insurers
A non-smoker in his mid-50s. Heart attack and one stent more than ten years back, good recent heart tests, severe sleep apnea treated with CPAP, and a higher build. He wanted $500,000 of 10-year term.
Fully underwritten
Tentative 200% rating, as a minimum
$174
Simplified issue
Qualifies on the questions. The one he went with.
$180
Simplified issue
Qualifies on the questions
$214
Fully underwritten
Tentative 325% rating, as a minimum
$318
Fifth insurer
Rated
$329
Sixth insurer
Rated
$522
Seventh insurer
Would not offer
No offer
Tentative monthly figures from one file, not quotes or predictions. For scale, standard pricing for a 54-year-old man who doesn’t smoke starts from $89 per month for the same coverage, based on current carrier rates and subject to underwriting and change.
Look at the top two rows. The lowest number was a rating quoted as a minimum, before any medical evidence had been seen. Six dollars more bought a plan he already qualified for on the questions. You only see that with all seven in front of you. Apply direct to one company and you get one row of that table.
That is the usual order. First we start fully underwritten. If there are health concerns that would affect that, we may look at simplified next, and if they are major it would go to guaranteed. Basically we are trying to find the best solution for the client.
If a simplified policy is already in place and the fully underwritten offer comes back better
Replace it, once the new one is in force
Why carry both? If the fully underwritten offer is cheaper or better, we would typically replace the simplified policy. That only happens after the new policy is issued and in force, and after checking what the old one gives up, such as its contestable period and any right to convert. Holding more than one life insurance policy is allowed, it is just rarely the point here.
The one reason not to
A new policy starts a new two-year contestable period. In Ontario that comes from section 184 of the Insurance Act: once a policy has been in force two years, the insurer can no longer void it over a misstatement on the application unless there was fraud. If restarting that clock is a concern, keep what you have.
General information, not legal advice.
If you want this done on your own file, start with term life insurance quotes to see the standard price for your age, then get in touch and we will work out where your file should go first.
How Long After a Diagnosis or Treatment Can You Apply for Life Insurance?
You can apply for something right away, and what time does is open up better options. Sometimes with a stroke, someone that’s had one stroke and it’s been more than five years, then that can open up simplified options, or in the future permanent options. The same pattern shows up after a heart attack and after cancer. At one insurer I use, the first step up comes at two years and the top simplified tier at five.
Canada Protection Plan, after a heart attack or stroke: most coverage by time passed
$50,000
$75,000
$350,000
$500,000
Under 2 years
Guaranteed Acceptance Life
2+ years
Deferred Life
4+ years
Deferred Elite
5+ years
Simplified Elite
Maximums for ages 18 to 60. A heart attack or stroke before age 40 stays on Guaranteed Acceptance Life. On every tier below Simplified Elite, the full benefit is limited in the first two years.
Other insurers put the same idea into the application itself, as questions that look back a set number of years. This is Assumption Life Platinum Protection, summarised. A yes to any one of these means Platinum is out and we work down to the next tier.
How far back each question looks
Ever
HIV or AIDS. Alzheimer’s, dementia, ALS or Huntington’s. Congestive heart failure. Cirrhosis. A pacemaker or implanted defibrillator. Cystic fibrosis or muscular dystrophy. Diabetes together with a heart attack, stroke, nerve damage or kidney damage.
Past 10 years
An organ or bone marrow transplant. Cardiomyopathy. Hepatitis B or C. Oxygen for a chronic lung condition.
Past 5 years
Diagnosed or hospitalized: heart attack, angina, angioplasty or bypass, stroke or mini-stroke, arrhythmia or heart murmur, epilepsy, MS, bipolar disorder, Crohn’s, colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic kidney disease.
Diagnosed, hospitalized or treated: cancer other than basal cell skin cancer, lupus, scleroderma, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia or psychosis.
Past 2 years
A new medication, a dose increase or stopping one for arrhythmia, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s, colitis, epilepsy, MS or bipolar disorder. A hospital stay for COPD or emphysema.
Summarised from the current application. The wording on the application governs, and it has other questions on weight, pending tests, lifestyle and travel.
On the fully underwritten side, the clocks I can give you come from my own files:
- Cancer: most companies I deal with go off the date your surgery, radiation or chemo finished, not the date you were diagnosed.
- A serious new heart diagnosis: on one file the read was about 12 months of stability before they would look at it.
- A newly prescribed cholesterol medication: they wanted to see one year before giving coverage.
None of that means sitting uninsured while a clock runs. On the cholesterol file, what we could do in the meantime was put coverage in place on a policy that doesn’t ask about cholesterol or blood pressure. Waiting carries its own price, which I go through in the cost of procrastinating on life insurance.
Medical Conditions That Affect Life Insurance: Find Yours
On the files I see, a medical condition affects life insurance in one of three ways: no change to the price, a rating, or a move to a different type of policy. Which one depends on your file more than on the name of the condition. Each guide below covers one condition in detail, and there are 110 of them.
Pick a group
Heart and circulation
On file: one underwriting desk’s read on atrial fibrillation with two ablations, the second one recent, was a possible rating of +75. That is 1.75 times the standard price.
Cancer
On file: at Canada Protection Plan a cancer history reaches the top simplified tier, Simplified Elite, at 10 years. Metastatic cancer is Guaranteed Acceptance Life only.
- Cancer, overview
- Insurers compared for a cancer history
- Breast cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Colorectal cancer
- Melanoma
- Lymphoma
- Leukemia
- Smoldering myeloma
- Brain cancer or tumour
- Glioblastoma
- Testicular cancer
- Uterine cancer
- Kidney cancer
- Liver cancer
- Pancreatic cancer
- Esophageal cancer
- Eye cancer
- Thymus cancer
- Neuroblastoma
Diabetes, thyroid and weight
On file: two insurers’ underwriters have told me in writing that a type 2 diabetic typically starts at about a 150% rating when everything else is controlled.
Mental health and neurodevelopmental
On file: at Canada Protection Plan, a hospital stay for anxiety or depression in the past 12 months means Deferred Life.
Brain and nervous system
On file: with Alzheimer’s or dementia, Guaranteed Acceptance Life is the only option at Canada Protection Plan.
Autoimmune, joints and skin
Digestive, liver and kidney
Lungs and sleep
On file: Assumption Life Platinum Protection has no question on sleep apnea itself.
Blood, genetic and infections
Alcohol, drugs and nicotine
On file: at Canada Protection Plan, drug addiction in the past 12 months is Guaranteed Acceptance Life only. Past five years, Simplified Elite opens.
Not on the list? That means I have not written it up yet, not that it cannot be insured. The process is the same: the details, then an anonymous check. Two related guides are what insurers consider high risk and disability insurance with a pre-existing condition.
Life Insurance With a Medical Condition: Common Questions
These are the seven questions I get asked most, each answered so it stands on its own.
Often, yes
Can a sick person get life insurance in Canada?
Often, yes. Being sick changes which type of policy you can get and what it costs, and guaranteed issue plans ask no health questions at all. As long as you’re between 18 and 75 and applying up to the carrier’s maximum, you qualify on health, though the carrier’s age and residency rules still apply. If the illness is terminal, understand the two-year rule first: on the guaranteed issue plans I use, a death from natural causes in the first two years returns the premiums paid, not the coverage amount.
None, on its own
What medical conditions disqualify you from life insurance?
No medical condition on its own rules out every type of life insurance, because guaranteed issue plans do not ask a health question. What a condition can do is rule out a specific product. Alzheimer’s or congestive heart failure, for example, is a yes on the Assumption Life Platinum Protection application, so that plan is out and we work down to the next one. And every provider I deal with that asks health questions will postpone while a test is still pending.
Yes
Can I get life insurance with a medical condition and no medical exam?
Yes. Simplified issue generally has no nurse visit and no fluids. You answer health questions instead, and the answers are binding. Coverage goes up to $750,000 on Assumption Life Platinum Protection, depending on your age. Guaranteed issue asks nothing and goes up to $100,000 on Manulife Guaranteed Issue Life.
Yes
Is simplified issue real life insurance?
Yes. It is still underwritten. The underwriting happens through the questions on the application, and the answers you give are binding. On the top tier of the simplified plans named on this page, the full benefit is payable from issue. Lower tiers hold back the full benefit for the first two years, so check which tier you are being offered.
It can cost the claim
What happens if I leave a medical condition off the application?
You put the claim at risk. In Ontario, section 184 of the Insurance Act gives an insurer two years in which it can void a policy over a misstatement on the application, and no time limit where there was fraud. That is why I tell clients the questions are worded exactly as they appear on the application, so answer them as written. I cover the rest in why life insurance claims get denied. General information, not legal advice.
A prelim, no. An application, yes.
Does a preliminary check or a decline go on my record?
An anonymous preliminary check does not, because your name is never attached to it. A formal application is different. Insurers share coded medical information through the MIB (Medical Information Bureau), and I have had an insurer write to me more than once because a client’s application at another carrier showed up. If an entry is wrong it can be fixed. I have had one corrected with a letter from the client’s doctor.
Guaranteed issue
What happens after two life insurance declines?
On one file, after applying at two companies and receiving two declines, we would have had a difficult time getting standard rated coverage, so the best option we had was a guaranteed issue type of product. Normally a guaranteed policy is between $10,000 and $50,000, and up to $100,000 on one plan, so it’s meant for final expense insurance. As one example, Manulife Guaranteed Issue Life is $34 per month for $10,000 on a 55-year-old man based on current rates, and a death from natural causes in the first two years returns premiums instead of the coverage amount. It costs more per dollar of coverage than the other two buckets, which is why it comes last. A decline is also not permanent, which is what the timing section above is about.
What to Do Next If You Have a Medical Condition
Send the details before you apply anywhere. The last thing I’d want is for us to be blindsided by an application, so the first thing I do is the anonymous check, and for that I need five things from you.
What to have ready
- The diagnosis, and the date you were diagnosed
- Every medication and dose, and the date of the most recent change
- Recent test results, and anything still pending or booked
- Height and weight, and whether you smoke or use nicotine
- Any past decline, rating or postponement, and which insurer it was
I work with almost 20 companies as an independent life insurance broker, licensed in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Call 1-877-654-6119 or use the buttons below, and we will work out where your file should start.
If you also need other coverage, critical illness and disability insurance are separate applications with their own health questions. You can start with critical illness insurance quotes or disability insurance quotes.
