5 Things To Know About Life Insurance and Diabetes 2023

Request a Callback

By clicking on submit I / We give consent for you to call me / us on the number provided to discuss my / our financial requirements.

Caring - Understanding - Reliable - Advice

Home » Guides & News » 5 things to know about life insurance and diabetes 2023

5 Things To Know About Life Insurance and Diabetes 2023

Life insurance is a policy that a lot of people want and it can be hard to know what your options are if you have a health condition. Diabetes is a condition that we hear quite regularly from people that we are supporting.

Most of the time we speak to people with type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes, but we have also helped people that have had gestational diabetes, diabetes insipidous and type 3 diabetes.

There are five key things that we are going to go through to help you understand your options for life insurance and other insurances.

1. Your HbA1C is very important

When you tell an insurer that you have diabetes or pre-diabetes they are going to ask about your current HbA1C reading and when this was taken, usually the month and year.

Here is the way that insurers tend to view HbA1C levels:

Over 5.5-6% or 37-41 mmol/mol – you have diabetes
6-7% or 42-53 mmol/mol – your diabetes is well controlled
7-8% or 54-63 mmol/mol – your diabetes control is ok
8-9% or 64-73 mmol/mol – your diabetes is above the ideal level
9-10% or 74-85 mmol/mol – your options for insurers that can accept your life insurance application will be reduced
Over 10% or 86 mmol/mol – your life insurance will probably need to be placed with specialist insurers

These are very rough guides as to how the underwriters will likely view your HbA1C levels and it is these levels that will be a big factor in determining the price of your life insurance.

Without your HbA1C reading there is little point in researching which insurer will be right for you. This is because all the underwriters will be able to say is ‘well if the HbA1C is 8 or under we should have good options, but if it’s 9 or more we could decline’. It really is so important to have your HbA1C to hand and if you can’t remember it, you can either ring your GP and ask for it or access your online account if your GP provides this.

2. Pre-diabetes needs to be disclosed

Pre-diabetes tends to be the condition that causes the most confusion when applying for life insurance. This is because you are pre-diabetic, so you don’t have diabetes, but you sometimes need to answer yes to the diabetes question.

Pre-diabetes isn’t always obvious in the life insurance applications so please do be careful. You might see these terms instead:

Excess blood sugar
Impaired glucose tolerance

Your pre-diabetes will fall into these two disclosures and it’s really important that you do say yes, if you have been told you are pre-diabetic.

3. Your premiums are likely to be higher

This is never nice to hear but it’s important to be clear and upfront about the way that diabetes is viewed by insurers. Diabetes can lead to a lot of serious conditions including heart attacks, strokes and sometimes cancer.

Premium increases for life insurance when you have diabetes usually happen as a percentage. It took me a while to get my head around this when I first started advising so please bear with me while I try and make it easy to understand, hopefully!

Let’s take a basic example. You’ve done research and found a life insurance policy that you like it’s £5 per month. You have diabetes and you are told that your premium is going to increase because of this.

Here are some of the ways that this might happen:

£5 per month with a 50% increase becomes £7.50 (£5 x 1.5)
£5 per month with a 100% increase becomes £10 (£5 x 2)
£5 per month with a 150% increase becomes £12.50 (£5 x 2.5)

There are a lot more potential multiples but I don’t want to bore you with all the numbers. You can see from this that whilst the premiums have increased they haven’t gone up to silly amounts. There absolutely can be times that premiums can go up to amounts that feel a bit eye watering, but the majority of the time they stay within affordable levels.

My suggestion is that if you want life insurance, have diabetes and are worried about the potential price, speak to an adviser like ourselves where we will give you a no obligation quotation.

4. Other conditions matter too

It’s really important when you speak with an adviser that is doing research for you, that you share any linked conditions that you have. This is so that we can manage your expectations.

A bit of an extreme example but let’s say you tell me about diabetes but don’t tell me that you are due to have a gastric band fitted next week. That really changes the options that we can look at for life insurance, so the more details we know at the start, the more accurate we can be in finding the best insurer for you.

When you have diabetes it’s useful for us to know if you have any of the following:

High BMI
High blood pressure
High cholesterol
Eye problems (retinopathy)
Nervous system problems (neuropathy)

Any of these can quickly influence the choice of insurer and insurance product for you. With life insurance applications your HbA1C, linked health conditions and range of symptoms will determine if your application is accepted online or if they will ask to see a report from your GP.

A report from your GP can seem a bit strange or intrusive. It really isn’t meant to be. The insurer can only ask for this report with your expressed permission. It can also be really positive as it means the insurer has a clear official record of your health before they offer you life insurance.

5. Critical Illness Cover and Income Protection

There are options for critical illness cover and income protection for people living with type 2 diabetes. Critical illness cover applications will be reviewed more strictly than the way life insurance is, because there are a lot of claimable conditions that you are at a higher risk of claiming on due to your diabetes.

Options for type 1 diabetics are more restricted and critical illness cover is not usually available, or comes with so many exclusions that it’s value it’s questionable. There are more options for income protection cover if you are type 1 diabetic.

Our award winning advisers will find you the best life insurance policy and insurer to match your needs. Get in touch with us today for a no obligation quotation.

Protection insurance – what you need and how to get it

Kathryn Knowles
July 24, 2023

Categories: Life Insurance

Client Reviews

5 things to know about life insurance and diabetes 2023

"Alan and his team were great! Alan helped get me cover where my own company could not (I work in financial services too!) Would highly recommend and will come back in the future."

"Krystle was fantastic throughout and managed to knock almost 50% off my current life insurance premium."

"Leanne couldn't have been more helpful and thoughtful with her questions and work on my enquiry."

"Kathryn and her colleagues were very helpful because of my recent illness."

"Nick was my advisor, Excellent knowledge of products and what I needed, not just pushing me into a sale/policy, will always refer to him in the future."

"I would like to say a very big thank you especially to Amy you really went above and beyond."

"Annaliese was absolutely fantastic, making us both feel at ease and helping us navigate issues that had caused us problems with previous attempts to obtain insurance."