Insuring Cocaine Users

According to 2009 data from a survey on Canadian consumption of alcohol and drugs, crack and cocaine were the most taken drugs by those over fifteen years, right after cannabis.

Whereas cannabis was used by 10.6% of Canadians during 2009, approximately 1.2% of people had experience with crack and cocaine. An average of 11% of Canadians consumed an illicit drug in the same time span. Among these drugs are heroin (diacetylmorphine), ecstasy (MDMA), cocaine and/or crack, amphetamines, hallucinogens (excluding salvia), or marijuana. 17.7% of men and 7.6% of women had used drugs, with the rate of adolescent drug experience at 27.3%.

Forbidden drug use has been on a retreat in Canada since 2004, creating a lot of addicts and former users who will look for life insurance in the future.

Quite understandably, insurance companies in Canada do not particularly appreciate cocaine use or the use of other recreational drugs. In most all instances, current cocaine, heroin or ecstasy use will result in an instantaneous denial. This is due to the fact that illicit drug use is a LINK1:pre-existing medical condition. Current drug users may still have a chance with simplified issue life insurance policies. These policies have no medical tests as a pre-condition and many of them do not have a drug related question.

We questioned four major insurers and scrutinized how their underwriting principles look at ecstasy, heroin and cocaine. This is what we found out:Present addiction to heroin, cocaine or ecstasy will result in an instantaneous denial.Use ended over 4 years ago will almost certainly bring about a policy rating – that is to say if the applicant is otherwise healthy. A policy rating means that a qualified applicant pays an additional premium premiumbecause the insurer agrees to bigger risk. Policy ratings are usually in a multiple and can be anywhere from 1.5x to 5x thestandard plan cost.If the client has not been consuming drugs for more than 4 years, the client may be entitled for standard premiums, i.e. without rating. Of course, this only holds if he or she is in good health otherwise and has no lifestyle issues as an effect of the past addiction.We recommend talking to an insurance adviser who has long-term experience working with Canadian insurers on underwriting current or former drug users.
The author is an insurance specialist and an expert on hard-to-insure clients. He works with over a dozen Canadian insurers, such as Manulife life insurance and Sunlife life insurance.

MP Brian Storseth on Bill C-304 (An Act to amend the Canadian human rights Act (protecting freedom)

We thank you taking the time to visit our website
and hope that we were able to assist you in your search for the information that you are looking for.
We do realize that with many articles written, it is possible
and even likely that you will find errors along the way.
We would appreciate you using the “contact us” page to let us know if you come across any mistakes
in our articles or if you simply have some ideas for articles that you would like to see in the future.
Thanks again for taking the time to visit,
we hope you have enjoyed it and hope that you will visit us again someday very soon.