OSA, CPAP, insurability, and life expectancy

[MoneyGal]

Here's my question: If you have severe OSA, but it is treated effectively (with xPAP or, for the sake of argument, any other way), do you still have a shortened life expectancy / heightened risk of death?

Does anyone know? What do actuaries think? Is their thinking only influenced by compliance?(i.e., 30% of people with severe OSA are non-compliant with their therapies and/or therapies do not work for them, so we assume a 30% greater risk of death for the population with severe OSA). Or what?

[woozle]

I can only hope that it means we would have an increase in life expectancy. I was told that if I did NOT use cpap I was likely to have a stroke or heart attack within 5 years and I am 39 and have OSA severely. I know that when I was diagnosed I was close to being admitted to a hospital - and now I am playing sports and life is much much different physicall and socially. So I would have to say that my life expectancy has increased. I have researched and have yet to identify a study on this type of thing as of yet but hope they would be coming out soon.

[Ganesha]

Here is my two cents...

If your body is getting the oxygen it needs your life expectancy should be normal. Whether the O2 comes in via a healhy airway or through CPAP machine doesn't matter.

Every person is an individual. Actuarial tables predict for the masses, not for you as an individual. It is all statistics.

That reminds me of a joke...
Two researchers and a statistician went hunting. A deer jumped out of the bushes. The first researcher takes a shot and misses by five feet in front of the deer. The second researcher shoots and misses by five feet behind the deer. Just then the statistician yells, 'We got him!".

[alnhwrd]

In my reasoned opinion, the effective treatment of OSA is the equivalent of quitting smoking and exercising every day. You still have the damage that has been done to live with, but you have stopped doing it every day. And with CPAP, your body has the chance to heal itself every night you use it. I don't know how much of a difference this makes to your isurance company.

[Roosterdenny]

I have severe OSA. I have been denied term life insurance this past week. I am 56 and in good health otherwise. I don't know what to do to get term life insurance I can afford. I have been compliant with my CPAP since I started almost 3 years ago. Has anyone encountered this problem before? Does anyone have any ideas or answers to getting affordable term life insurance? Thanks

[Georgio]

I have term life insurance through my credit union, check with one. They ask very few questions. I think everyone is eligible. In my opinion, we should all be thinking about abandoning the larger crooked banks and going to depositor owned credit unions anyway, before we are taken for another expensive ride.

Georgio

[roster]

Here's my question: If you have severe OSA, but it is treated effectively (with xPAP or, for the sake of argument, any other way), do you still have a shortened life expectancy / heightened risk of death?

...........

Let's compare us to the population of people (population X) who do not have sleep-disordered breathing.

First, many of us went for decades before we were diagnosed and treated. A lot of damage was done in those years which you will not find in population X. This damage, no doubt, contributes to a shorter life expectancy for our population.

Second, who do you think gets more nights of sufficient, restful sleep? Those who are wearing a mask pumping air into them, or population X who is sleeping in the most comfortable position they can find and not wearing a mask pumping air into them? Lack of sufficient, restful sleep contributes to a shorter life expectancy.

I carry a large term life insurance policy that I had planned to cancel at the age of 60. After I found out what I had been suffering with for years, I told my wife to keep paying the premiums because the policy is likely to pay off nicely for her in the near future.

[BeanMeScot]

Damage has been done during the years when you had OSA and it wasn't treated. Does it correct? I don't know. Smoking was mentioned. Doctor's say after so many years of not smoking, your lungs get back to a point that they can no longer tell you ever smoked. Perhaps OSA is the same.

[MoneyGal]

BMS - that's what I wonder, too. I also wonder whether someone who is perfectly compliant (me, to date) gets lumped in with the larger non-compliant OSA population. Hmmm.