Without Evidence of Insurability

It sounds like a terrible paperback thriller you buy in the airport gift shop because you realized just before the plane started to board that you forgot to charge your iPad. However, in reality, it's a term related to insurance.

Many forms of health or life insurance require a detailed physical. The insurance company wants to make sure that you won't drop dead two days after making your first premium payment.

Sometimes, these precautions are waived. The insurance company decides that a certain product or a certain situation doesn't require the physical. In these cases, they issue the policy "without evidence of insurability." It's the insurance equivalent of marrying someone on the first date.

Employer health insurance plans are usually issued without evidence of insurability. The risk pools are large enough in these cases that individual exams aren't necessary and would actually pose undo costs on the insurance company to process. Plus, a lot of government regulations ban insurers from considering pre-existing conditions for certain lines of health insurance.