Your Ultimate Guide to the Best Life Insurance Quotes for Diabetics
Life is uncertain. You never know what is going to happen to you from one day to the next. Ill-health and death have no particular preferences. Whether you are rich or poor, you have equal chances of falling ill or dying at any given time during your lifetime. It is this uncertainty on which we base the concept of life insurance.
Everyone has a certain level of risk attached to their existence. The risk that you face in your day-to-day life is quantified in a life insurance policy, which translates that risk into monetary values which your family can benefit from if anything were to happen to you.
Life insurance is one of the most important investments that you’ll ever make for the future of your family. It’s the best way to ensure that your loved ones are provided for financially, no matter what happens to you.
If you apply for life insurance, the company will go into the details of scores of different factors before coming to a decision onthe level of risk you have to be insured with a policy. They will review everything from your age to all of your hobbies, medical history, family health history and several other factors. The higher risk that you present to the company, the higher the premiums you will have to pay for life insurance.
The primary factor that the insurance company will review is your health. If you have any pre-existing medical conditions, then you may end up paying higher premiums for your insurance coverage, and under certain circumstances, your application may even get declined.
One of the most prevalent pre-existing medical conditions that appear in life insurance applications is diabetes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of Americans with diabetes and prediabetes crossed 100 million in 2017. Thousands of people with diabetes apply for life insurance coverage every year.
Although Life Insurance for Diabetics can be a tricky business, it isn’t impossible to get. We have personally helped many people with diabetes obtain life insurance policies. It is our goal to find the best and hopefully affordable Life insurance for people with diabetes.
With What Type of Diabetes Do You Work?
There are two major types of diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 diabetes is where the body’s immune system attacks the insulin-creating cells in the pancreas, so the patient has to take insulin injections daily to survive. Type 2 diabetes is where the body has lost its capacity to process insulin correctly, so additional medication is required to facilitate the process. Life insurance is available for people with diabetes based on the type of diabetes they suffer from:
Life Insurance for Diabetics Type 1
Due to the high-risk factor of Type 1 diabetes, life insurance for those who have Type 1 diabetes is difficult to come by, and it also is relatively more expensive than any other insurance cover. For this reason, many families just don’t pursue getting insurance cover for a person with Type 1 diabetes. However, an efficient insurance agent will be able to give you the right guidance for getting life insurance even if you have Type 1 diabetes. You will get guidance to the right company, with a suitable policy, by favorably presenting your case so that your case gets accepted at better rates even if you have Type 1 diabetes.
Life Insurance for Diabetics Type 2
It should not come as a surprise that the process of getting a life insurance policy is complicated and the cover is also expensive if you have Type 2 diabetes. However, you should not be discouraged, as life insurance is available for people, even if they have Type 2 diabetes. The trick here is to take certain precautions in such a way that you can work your way around specific problems, and a good insurance agent (Life Approved) will be able to show you how.
What is the Information Needed?
The key to success is “Control” concerning your health. Insurance providerswill be interested in how much control you have over your health. You should be aware of your current A1C reading. It is also a good idea to have a favorable overall history of your A1C readings. Other important factors are your height and weight, the age when you were first diagnosed, smoker status, medication, etc.
To make the process quick and easy, ensure that you have the paperwork linked to the above factors ready. You need to submit these documents along with some others, about which a competent life insurance agent (Life Approved) will advise you.
Your agent will also ensure that you don’t make any errors in the application which could cause undue delay in processing your request. Make sure that before you submit your application, you have signed in all the relevant fields and that those fields are dated with the current date as well.
For What Can I Apply?
There are two broad categories of life insurance for people with diabetes – term life insurance and whole life insurance.
Term Life Insurance
This type of policy refers to a life insurance plan that is valid for a fixed period. A contract is drawn out for a limited number of years during which, if the policy owner passes away, the nominee will get a lump sum amount known as the “sum assured,” provided the premiums are paid up to date. This type of policy has an expiry date, which will be one month after you pay your last premium since premiums on a term life insurance policy are usually paid in advance. No amount will be payable to the nominee after the expiry date of the plan.
Whole Life Insurance
With whole life insurance, the period of the contract is until the death of the policy owner. Due to the potentially long term of a whole life insurance policy, there is usually an investment component added to such plans. This fact means that the plan has a surrender value which will be equal to the appreciation of the money contained in the investment component.
The policyholder can borrow or withdraw cash against the underlying value of the invested monies on their policy. Premiums are payable up to a particular age of the policyholder in most whole life insurance policies. Once you have crossed that age, the coverage will continue until the death of the policy owner, but premiums will no longer be payable.
The Benefits of Underwriting
You can get the best rate by purchasing an insurance policy that is medically underwritten. However, you don’t want to apply blindly for a policy that the carriers will underwrite without any regard to your current health status. Although several providers will offer you a plan that doesn’t need a medical exam, it will not be underwritten, and you will have to pay considerably more for such a no medical exam policy.
However, wedo have carriers that offer similar policies like simplified issue (Whole Life for Type 1 Diabetics) policies that simply require answer Yes or No to some questions. All carriers will check the Medical Information Data Base (MIB) along with a Pharmacy and DMV report.
Carriers will also have what is called a “Medical Information Base” which contains all your medical records and is sensitive data which only your doctors and your insurance carriers will share.
What Type of Questions Will I be Required to Answer?
Here is a list of the most frequent questions that you may have to answer in a life insurance application form:
- Are you a Smoker?
- Date of Diagnosis (of a particular illness)
- Height and weight details
- Weight one year ago
- Your doctor’s name and contact details
- The frequency of your doctor visits
- Date of the last visit
- Do you follow a strict diet?
- Insulin use (if applicable)
- Do you take oral tablets? (please provide names and dosage amounts)
- Has there been any change in your treatment in the past two years?
- How often do you check your blood sugar level?
- Last blood sugar reading with date
- Average blood sugar reading and the time of this reading
- Last A1C reading with date
- Have you ever experienced a diabetic coma or acidosis so severe that it required hospitalization?
- Ever you ever had insulin shock?
- Have you ever been absent from work due to diabetes or associated conditions?
You will also have to answer questions related to elevated blood pressure, heart trouble, and so on.
Getting the Most Affordable Life Insurance as a Person with Diabetes
The insurance company isn’t going to just focus on your diabetes diagnosis. There are several other factors that they will consider, and they will expect you to take a medical exam. The results of this exam will play a significant role in the final premiums you pay once your application gets accepted. There are several things you can do to ensure that you pay lower premiums to save a bit of your hard-earned money:
Diet control
The severity of your diabetes is directly related to the diet that you follow. If you follow a diabetes-friendly meal plan by avoiding sugar and sugar-generating foods as well as junk food which is loaded with bad cholesterol, your sugar levels will fall to more acceptable limits. The risk of heart-related and cardiovascular health issues will also get drastically reduced, and your medical reports will be more favorable, resulting in better insurance rates.
Exercise
One of the key controlling factors of diabetes control is exercise. If you follow a regular exercise regime, you will see your sugar levels fall. Improved blood circulation due to a healthy exercise routine will also show favorably in cardiovascular medical reports.
Smoking
Being listed as a smoker will automatically shoot up the premiums on your life insurance policy – in fact, you can end up paying almost double. The combination of diabetes and tobacco usage can even result in an insurance policy being declined from some insurance providers. Hence, if you can’t kick the habit, at least try to drastically reduce your tobacco intake to a cigarette or two a day or just the occasional cigar.
Sleeping Habits
The key to good health is to get a good night’s sleep at the right time. You can achieve this by going to bed at a decent hour every night – going to bed at 3.00 am, or 4.00 am and sleeping until lunch definitely will not work well for your diabetes. You should get to bed well before midnight and sleep for at least 8 to 9 hours.
Monitor your Sugar Levels
Be aware of your blood sugar levels by checking them at regular intervals. If there is a spike, visit your doctor who will probably change your medication to keep your blood sugar in check.
Choosing the right agent
You can get the best rates on an insurance policy by hiring an independent insurance agent. (Life Approved) Such an agent will give you access to unlimited highly-rated companies instead of a traditional insurance agent that will be attached to a single company. This facility will increase your options considerably.
Each insurance company is different, and they all have different guidelines and criteria that they follow for medical underwriting. Your independent insurance agent (Life Approved)will be able to filter out the companies that offer the best rates and will be able to provide you with a good deal.
More importantly, such an advisor will be able to ensure that your application does not get declined. Usually, a carrier rejects a policy due to disclosures that are unacceptable by some companies but the same disclosures may be acceptable by others companies. So, the trick is to know which companies are likely to accept such declarations, which an experienced independent insurance agent will be able to do.
Admittedly, getting life insurance for either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetics can be difficult. However, particular companies accept applications of persons with these medical conditions. Due to years of experience providing insurance for such high-risk applicants, these companies are in a position to give you reasonably-priced insurance coverage. A reliable independent insurance agent (Life Approved)will be able to identify such companies.
How much Life Insurance do you Need?
You want to be adequately covered, but then you also don’t want to be over-insured. Several factors govern the amount of coverage required, the main two factors being your income and your outstanding dues or liabilities.
- Your Income: If you have family members who are dependent on your income such as a non-earning spouse, minor children or differently-abled adults, they will need to be compensated adequately on the unfortunate event of your demise. The amount of coverage that you apply for should be about seven to ten times the total income you get from various sources. This requirement would necessarily include income from rent, interest accrued on investments, dividends and such, in addition to salary from your regular job.
- Your Liabilities: Make a list of your liabilities and submit it to your agent. These will include your home mortgage, car loan, hire purchase bills and so on. Against these liabilities, a suitability report will be prepared which is a write-up that suggests the amount of coverage that will be required to cover pay for them, so that on your demise, your family doesn’t have to bear the burden of your debts.
How do I Start the Process?
You may very well ask yourself where do you start with this seemingly dauntless task? Well, help is at hand.
You can contact us for a free consultation devoid of any hassle or pressure to get into anything about which you are not sure. We know how hard it is to even think about getting a life insurance policy if you have diabetes. We have handled many such cases and will be able to put all your doubts to rest. Don’t make the mistake that so many others have made by assuming that you can’t have life insurance coverage, or it will be too expensive due to your being diabetic.
Almost every day we face this question: “Can you get life insurance if you have diabetes?” And our experience has taught us that in most cases we can provide some coverage!
In fact, even if you have been declined life insurance previously, please understand, there are still enough options in hand to give you the life insurance coverage that your family deserves. Do not make the mistake of opting out of life insurance – you need to consider the future of your loved ones as your first priority.
Contact Us
If you have any questions regarding life insurance policies for diabetics, please get in touch with me today. We will be able to answer all your questions and put you on the right track to getting a life insurance policy that best meets the needs of you and your family.
There are just so many options to choose from that it would be a crime to neglect to take these necessary steps. Each plan has its advantages and disadvantages, and we will be able to go over all these pros and cons together to finalize the best plan for you.
So, please do fill out my contact form (Contact)or call me on 800-549-2272 for more details.