Ed Hinerman On Life Insurance

Life insurance for diabetics!

With the Center for Disease Control stating that type 2 diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, life insurance companies are faced with the challenge of how to underwrite the disease so that it is properly assessed in the context to the risk pool they need to protect.

 Layman’s terms. Life insurance companies take diabetes and how you treat and manage your own diabetes seriously. They don’t want to sink the ship by taking the issue of diabetes too lightly. Conversely they also don’t want to over react and throw all diabetics overboard.

There are good rates available for life insurance on diabetics. What underwriters want to see can be summed up in just a few words. If you are diabetic and want good life insurance quotes you need to be educated about your condition, concerned enough to do all the right things to control it, and be compliant with the treatment program you are on.

Here are two situations. I will leave you to guess who gets the best insurance rates. To make all things equal we will start with just one person and assume two different courses of action.

Our person is 56. At 5′9 and 270#’s, not dainty by any stretch of the imagination. He finds out on an insurance exam that his A1C is 8.5 and the insurance agent suggests he see his doctor because that indicates some very high glucose levels. He is diabetic!

So, #1 soaks in that information and decides to take action. Since he isn’t all that keen on going to the doctor, he assumes that role himself. He knocks off some of the bad eating habits that helped him earn that 270# and goes on a diet because he has heard that obesity can affect diabetes. By culling out some of his favorite hobbies like donuts and ice cream….well, pretty much at least, he is finally, after two years,  able to get down to a lean and mean 255#’s. He decides he has taken care of the problem and therefore never looks into the issue any further.

Now #2 takes that information from the insurance exam to his doctor. The first thing he asks is what an A1C is. After finding out that it indicates extremely elevated glucose over a long period, he asks the doctor for educational material so he can learn more about diabetes. He starts an oral medication to help bring his glucose under control and because the doctor indicated his blood pressure was running a little high, he starts medication to keep that in check. He then follows doctor’s orders for a diet and exercise program that over the course of two years brings his weight down to 220#’s. His A1C is now down to 6.5, he feels great, and is no longer in need of blood pressure medication. He continues on the diet and exercise with a goal of eventually being down to 190#’s.

OK. I won’t make you guess. Client #1, if purchasing a 250,000, 20 year term policy would likely have to pay in the area of $3600-$4000 per year after working on getting his diabetes under control for two years. Client #2 would probably pay about $1700 per year.

Talk to your independent life insurance agent today about your diabetes and how to earn the best rates possible.

2 comments March 31st, 2007

Life insurance underwriting likely to change on heart procedure!

With the news out this week that a recent study shows little or no added health benefit for a heart patient that has a stent put into a vein, stand by to see how life insurance underwriting will react.

Quoting an Associated Press article by Mark Jewell, “Drug-coated stents have been implanted in more than 6 million people worldwide — a modern record for fastest use of a new medical device.

But use has fallen since evidence emerged that drug-coated stents carry a slightly higher risk of triggering blood clots months or years later. Many doctors have returned to using the older bare-metal stents or doing bypass surgery instead of angioplasty until more is known.”

In the past life insurance underwriting has actually been more favorable for angioplasty with stents versus bypass surgery, seemingly less invasive and risky. Now, with potential risk from clots, that may switch.  There is further revelation that, inspite of recommended guidelines, many patients receive stents prematurely.

In an article on the home page of www.angioplasty.org dated 3/28/07, they state “Have patients with stable angina been given stents unnecessarily? Under current practice guidelines, it is recommended that patients with stable angina first be given a trial of medical therapy, along with lifestyle changes and risk factor reduction.”

From years of working on life insurance for cardiac patients, the experience seems to be that often the angioplasty and stent precede any attempts at risk factor reduction.

One thing you can count on is that this information will be perceived differently by each life insurance company’s medical director who scrutinizes the report. That simply makes it more important for heart attack or coronary artery disease patients who are seeking life insurance to seek out the best independent life insurance agent you can find. 

Add comment March 31st, 2007