INSURANCEONE AMERICA’S GUIDE TO BETTER COVERAGE
What it costs Guide contents

What it costs

What does it actually cost?

Most people don’t know what it costs. And we are going to tell you why we cannot put a price table on this page, when we can put one on every Medicare page we run.

The short answer

Few people know what it costs. Nobody publishes life insurance rates, so a real number comes from a real application, and it is set by your age, tobacco use, the amount, the number of years and your health.

1

Few people know what it costs

Most guesses are not anybody’s real price.

4%of people 30 and under could correctly price a basic life insurance policyLife Happens, 2026
32%of consumers believe they are knowledgeable about life insuranceLIMRA, 2026

So the honest first answer is that your guess is probably not your price. Here is the honest second answer.

Why we can show you Medicare prices and not life prices

Nobody publishes life insurance rates. Not your state, not the federal government.

Twelve sources checked, 2026

Why Medicare prices can be published and life insurance prices cannot Medicare rates are filed and published, so every company's price in your county is public record and we show all of them. Life insurance rates are filed with regulators but not published for comparison, so no site can show you a table of real prices. MEDICARE Filed, and published Every company’s price in your county is public record. So we show you all of them. LIFE INSURANCE Filed, not published Rates go to regulators. Nobody publishes them for comparison. So no site can show you a table of real prices. We checked twelve of them, including the NAIC’s own buyer’s guide for consumers. It does not contain a single dollar figure.

Swipe the chart sideways to see all of it →

Medicare Supplement and Advantage rates are filed publicly, which is why our quoting tool can show you the prices companies filed where you live. Life rates are filed with state regulators but not published in a form anyone can compare.

So what is any site doing when it shows you a life insurance price table?

It built that table from quotes it ran, and it should say so. We would rather tell you what the price actually depends on, and then get you a real number from a real application, than show you an average that is nobody’s price.

2

What moves the number, in order

Biggest first.

  • Your ageThe single biggest one, and the only one that moves in one direction while you think about it.
  • Whether you use tobaccoUsually the largest single step in the price after age.
  • The amount and the number of yearsBoth of which you choose, and step 2 is where you work out the years.
  • Your healthWhich is between you and the insurer’s underwriter, and not a thing we ask you anywhere on this site.
Remember this

A real price needs a real application. An average on a price table is nobody’s price.

That is the whole guide.

You now know what each kind of policy is for, what the catch is on each one, and what moves the price. The one thing this guide cannot give you is your number, because nobody publishes life insurance rates for anybody to compare.

A licensed support agent can get you a real one. There is no obligation, and how licensed support agents are paid is set out on our disclosures page.

Get my real number Back to the six steps