Life Insurance is designed to take care of one's dependents after death... but you can't always buy life insurance when you need it. Why? You have to be in reasonably good health to purchase most types of life insurance products.  

It may seem logical to ask: Why can't I get life insurance if I'm dying? Let us look at an example to understand the answer to this question.
 

Say you make $50,000 a year, and have $3,000 in your savings account. You have a $200,000 term life insurance policy that costs you $38.00 per month. [Now if something were to happen to you – your family has $200,000 to live on instead of only the $3,000 in your savings account.] The life insurance company has this $200,000 to give to your family because they have collected $38.00 per month from similar people who did not die, therefore the insurance company can afford to pay the $200,000 to your heirs.
 

Now let us assume a life insurance company sells $200,000 life insurance polices to high risk – terminally ill people. The company realizes the high probability of paying out the $200,000 on many policies. In order for the insurance company to be able to pay out on several $200,000 policies they would need to collect some crazy amount like $50,000 per month from a lot of similar people, knowing that only a few will survive.
 

This example shows: that the more unhealthy the group is … the more the insurance company will need to charge each person in the group.
 

Most life insurance companies do not offer high risk life insurance policies. This is why you need to be reasonably healthy to get a life insurance policy. 
 

This is also why we are so passionate about Life Insurance. It makes my heart ache when someone calls to ask about life insurance for their husband because just received 4 stints in his heart and has diabetes -or- My Aunt needs life insurance because she was just diagnosed with a tumor. Usually (not always) by then it is too late to be accepted by the life insurance company.

Other Helpful Topics:

Sad Fact of Life Insurance

Some is Better Than None

Why do I need Life Insurance?

Guidelines – Why Life Insurance

How to get the Best Insurance Rate