Best No-Exam Life Insurance Of June 2023

A no-exam life insurance policy may not be able to provide the full coverage amount you need, especially if you’re looking to cover many working years or the years of raising a family.

Before you start getting life insurance quotes, calculate how much life insurance you need. A no-exam policy alone may not be able to provide sufficient coverage.

Getting life insurance without a long application process is appealing, but don’t jump into a no-exam life insurance application without understanding your chances of getting approved. Many no-exam policies require very good or excellent health for approval. A denial goes on your insurance record and could hinder future applications.

Don’t be surprised if you end up doing a more traditional application process, including a life insurance medical exam if you’ve had some health issues.

Of course you don’t want to overpay for life insurance, but research more than cost. There are coverage options that can be very valuable long after you buy the policy, such as the option to convert term life to permanent life insurance. Also, look at whether there’s an accelerated death benefit, which gives you access to money from your own death benefit if you become terminally ill.

No matter what type of life insurance you’re applying for, be thorough and truthful on the application.

“Pay attention to each question carefully and be ready to respond with information around specific medical conditions you have. Giving more detailed information will help streamline the process as well as get a more accurate underwriting decision,” says Tavan of Legal & General America.

Intentional misrepresentations can lead to application denials or, worse, denial of a claim after you pass away. Life insurance companies have many ways to verify application information. Technology on the backend allows them to verify data from additional sources.

If the company rejects you for no-exam life insurance because of your health, don’t give up your life insurance search. If you need life insurance, you likely have other routes.

Looking for traditional term life insurance? See Forbes Advisor’s ratings of the best term life insurance.

What does a physical exam for a headache involve?

Doctors can sometimes identify the causes of a person’s headache with a physical exam. During the exam, they look for any signs of underlying conditions and explore the person’s history to establish whether the headaches follow any patterns.

Many people experience headaches from time to time. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) explains that they vary in severity and frequency.

People usually get medical help when their headaches are so frequent and painful that they interfere with their daily activities.

Doctors describe headaches as pain in a person’s head or neck. Common types include tension headaches, migraine, and cluster headaches.

The NINDS explains that these are called primary headaches and do not indicate an underlying condition.

Some infections, seizures, tumors, or strokes, can cause headaches. These are called secondary headaches, and doctors will rule these out during a physical exam.

This article explains what happens during a physical exam for headaches. It explains what to expect and why doctors may ask about the person’s lifestyle and medical history.

Doctors perform physical exams to help them work out why a person is experiencing headaches.

Part of this involves taking a detailed look at the person’s medical history and lifestyle to see whether there are any contributing factors.

Doctors use a physical exam to rule out underlying conditions or current infections that may link to a person’s headaches.

These include sinus infections, toothaches, and head injuries.

Doctors then look for patterns in a person’s headaches that may indicate whether they result from migraine, tension headaches, or cluster headaches. This helps them decide on the best course of treatment.

When performing a physical examination for headaches, a doctor will check a person’s vital signs, blood pressure, reflexes, and temperature. They will also check to see whether a person is calm or restless in a dark room.

They will also:

Before the physical exam, doctors usually ask questions about the person’s general health and medical history.

The NINDS explains that this will include questions about any medications the person takes, prescribed or otherwise, and whether or not there is a family history of migraine or other types of headaches.

The NINDS recommends keeping a headache diary to help the person explain their symptoms and highlight any possible patterns or behaviors that lead to headaches.

They suggest noting:

Doctors may also ask how much screen time a person has each day, whether or not they take regular breaks from screens, and whether exercise, bowel movements, or coughing triggers the headaches.

If doctors suspect that a person’s headaches are because of an underlying condition, they may recommend additional tests, according to the NINDS.

The tests may include blood and urine tests to check for infections or toxins and neurological exams to check a person’s nervous system.

Occasionally, doctors recommend imaging tests, such as MRIs or CT scans, to look for:

Doctors can usually diagnose migraine, tension headaches, and cluster headaches during a physical exam and will recommend treatments depending on the type.

Doctors may recommend lifestyle changes for those with primary headaches. These may include keeping hydrated, eating a balanced diet regularly, and reducing stress or anxiety.

They may also prescribe medications for the different types of primary headaches.

If the doctor suspects the underlying cause of the headaches is another condition, such as a seizure disorder, stroke, or tumor, a person may need immediate and specialized care.

If the headaches are due to a treatable condition, such as an infection, doctors will start treatment as soon as possible. This may involve antibiotics, pain relief, and rest.

Many people contact a doctor about headaches when they interfere with their daily activities. But some headaches can indicate a serious health condition requiring immediate care.

The NINDS recommends getting urgent attention if a person has:

A person must also contact a doctor if they notice a change in the pattern of headaches they typically experience.

During a physical exam for headaches, doctors may ask the person about the type of pain they are experiencing and any additional symptoms, including sensitivity to light or fevers.

They will also discuss the person’s medical history and whether or not they have any family members with similar symptoms.

Doctors can usually identify primary headaches during a physical exam but may recommend further tests to check for underlying conditions.

Study: ChatGPT bests Alexa, other AIs in online medical advice

Move over, WebMD. A study in a leading medical journal has found that popular artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT gives superior advice about a variety of health issues such as headaches and suicide.

ChatGPT gave evidence-based answers to 91% of 23 common health questions that a team of researchers put to it and provided referrals to specific human resources for two of them, according to the study, published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open.

Competitors Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, Google Assistant, Microsoft’s Cortana and Samsung’s Bixby collectively recognized just 5% of the same questions and made only one referral.

ChatGPT’s next-generation language model helped the chatbot give “nearly human-quality responses” of 183-274 words apiece at reading levels ranging from ninth grade to college seniors, the researchers wrote in the federally funded study.

“Our study shows that ChatGPT can give responses that are similar to what a real expert would say, demonstrating that AI assistants have great potential in addressing health-related inquiries,” lead researcher John Ayers, a University of California, San Diego, behavioral scientist, told The Washington Times.

ChatGPT, a Microsoft-controlled AI chatbot that grows smarter at mimicking human behavior as it assimilates more knowledge in a massive database, presents the illusion of talking with a friend who wants to do your work for you. The chatbot can compose college essays based on assignment prompts, solve complex math or physics equations and pass the medical exam required to become a doctor.

Public K-12 school districts from New York City to Los Angeles have banned the next-generation technology since it became available in November over concerns about academic dishonesty — as have several countries, including China, Italy and North Korea. And conservatives have accused it of liberal bias in its political analysis.

It’s problematic for doctors that ChatGPT does not connect users to a human person for most health issues, said Mr. Ayers, who specializes in computational epidemiology.

He pointed to the example of the nonprofit National Eating Disorders Association, which suspended its chatbot Tessa this month after it told helpline callers struggling with body image to “lose weight.”

“When we let AI do it alone, bad things can happen, as in this case,” Mr. Ayers said. “These tools cannot replace people. It is a problem that they don’t connect people to existing resources.”

In Mr. Ayers’ study, ChatGPT provided referrals in response to questions from someone considering suicide and someone reporting abuse. It recommended the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline for the former and the national hotlines for domestic, child and sexual abuse for the latter.

“I’m sorry to hear that you are experiencing abuse,” ChatGPT told a researcher who posed the question. “It is never OK for someone to hurt or mistreat you, and you deserve to be treated with respect and kindness. If you are in immediate danger, please call your local emergency number or law enforcement agency right away. If you need support or assistance, there are also organizations that can help.”

The chatbot recommended Tylenol, Advil or aspirin for headaches, and fixes like nicotine patches for a researcher who asked how to quit smoking. It did not give specific referrals to human professionals for these issues, leaving users to figure out a plan of action individually.

Some health experts welcomed the study, noting that doctors will also rely on ChatGPT for medical guidance as its database expands.

“AI has always assisted physicians in the care of patients. More advanced and precise AI tools, like ChatGPT, should be seen as more reliable tools for us and, ultimately, mean better care for patients,” said Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

A major benefit of the technology is that it reduces people’s reliance on costly office visits and dubious internet resources to get reliable help for specific medical complaints, added Joseph Grogan, a senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics.

“ChatGPT has a tremendous opportunity to lower costs, speed drug development, relieve doctors from crushing administrative burden, turbocharge telehealth and radically empower patients — that is, if Washington, D.C., doesn’t screw it all up by strangling it under the weight of bureaucracy,” he told The Times.

Added Mr. Grogan, who served as director of the Domestic Policy Council under President Trump: “America’s default position cannot be to regulate this technology. Let’s let it blossom and disrupt a health care system that everyone agrees is too bloated, too inefficient and too costly.”