LIFE INSURANCE has been difficult to obtain for the young individual who has had a cardiovascular complaint. In the not too distant past, the patient with an innocent heart murmur often was not reliably differentiated from the child with rheumatic heart disease or a congenital cardiovascular defect because of the inadequacy of diagnostic techniques. In addition, prior to 1939, there was no method of complete correction of a cardiovascular defect.1 As a result, life insurance companies were reluctant to insure these patients.2
The accuracy of diagnosis and the effectiveness of therapy of cardiovascular disease have undergone remarkable changes in the past 2 decades. Facilities are now available which permit even complex abnormalities to be diagnosed with precision. Furthermore, advances in cardiovascular surgery have, in many cases, improved the prognosis to such an extent that these patients can look forward to living normal lives. For these reasons, it seemed