Ed Hinerman On Life Insurance

Life insurance for diabetics!

Because of all of the health risks associated with poorly controlled type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes, life insurance underwriters take a cautious approach. What the underwriters are looking for can be summed up in three words. Control! Control! Control!

While the risks are huge when a diabetic has poor control, the mortality risk drops dramatically when diabetes and associated health issues such as build (weight) and hypertension are watched carefully and controlled and monitored prudently.

If you are diabetic and looking for the best possible life nsurance quote, just a few guidelines. First, use an independent life insurance agent. Armed with your specific information they can shop for you across a wide range of companies. Since companies change underwriting guidelines, often without any warning or even any notice to life insurance agents, shopping your case allows an agent to find the best rate and lock it in.

Second, know your lab results and your medications. Life insurance underwriters really don’t care if your last glucose reading was 104. Every time you see the doctor they will test your A1C or hbA1C. This gives a long term (3 month) look at your glucose averages. I won’t pretend to know how it works, but it will tell your doctor and the underwriter if that 104 is normal or if you just caught a good reading. For instance, an A1C reading of 7.0 would mean your glucose average is around 130. That means for every time your glucose was around 100, it spent an equal amount of time around 160. Not bad control, but certainly not as good as if your average glucose was 104, which would equate to an A1C of around 5.9.

Know your average blood pressure. The more information an agent and an underwriter have, the better the job they can do for you. And this may seem silly, but know your weight. Don’t guess at it. For those of us who have weighed more than we should have at some point, we have a tendency to estimate. Being off by 10, 15 or 20 pounds can make a big difference in the overall picture and the immediate accuracy of your life insurance quote.

Lastly, if you have been diabetic for a while and have become bored with the details, now is the time to get back in touch. Find out what your last 3 A1C readings were. On your last urinalysis was there any protein in the urine. Find out if there has been any significant changes in your blood pressure readings in the past few years. Know what your cholesterol, hdl and ldl readings are. And get on an accurate scale and know what your weight is. The knowledge you gain will help your independent life insurance agent do the best job for you. They will also benefit you in monitoring your health.

Life insurance for diabetics can be very affordable if you follow the right steps and are taking care of yourself.

Add comment February 19th, 2007

The key to good life insurance prices - well controlled health issues!

Unless your worst affliction in life was a sneezing fit 5 years ago, you may have discovered that life insurance often comes at a higher rate due to certain health issues. While you may not get the same rates as superman if you happen to be a type 2 diabetic, good, reasonable rates are still available if you take care of yourself and have your diabetes, whether type 1 or type 2, under good control.

Just to give you a heads up what the underwriters are looking for when they review your labs and your file, control for a diabetic comes under the label of A1C or hbA1C. Your doctor may have talked to you about the test they do that gives them a 3 month overview of your average glucose readings. That is the A1C. The reason underwriters use this measure is that a fasting glucose reading gives them a snapshot of your condition when you are minding your manners. The A1C averages all of those good snapshots with all of the bad ones. It tells them overall if you have good or poor control.

In general an A1C of 6.5 or lower is considered very good control, 6.5 to 7.0 is good control, 7.0-8.0 is moderate control, 8.0 to 9.0 is poorly controlled and over 9.0 is likely to be uninsurable.

Hypertension in combination with type 2 diabetes is considered a problem. If you have that combination, both need to be under good control if you want reasonable insurance rates. Build, height and weight, is also an issue that needs to be considered.

Bottom line. Get with a good independent insurance agent who understands how and where to find the best life insurance quotes for diabetics. Before you even contact them, if you don’t already know, call your doctor and find out what your last A1C was. The more you know about your type1 diabetes or your type 2 diabetes, the better the chances are that your term insurance or universal life insurance will be at a price that agrees with your budget.

Add comment February 19th, 2007