Posts filed under 'Type 1 diabetes'
There must be a couple of million people in the US licensed to sell life insurance. If you take in the giant internet mega agencies, all of the independent agents, and all of the captive agents (work for just one company), the possibilities for purchasing life insurance become staggering.
Put in context, there are probably as many, if not more doctors. Does that mean that no matter what is wrong with you, there are 2 million choices for a place to go for treatment? I’m thinking not. If you have a cold, a cardiologist is likely not going to see you, and if you’ve had a heart attack, it’s highly unlikely that your general practitioner won’t refer you to a specialist. There are those unfortunate times when GP’s think they know the answer to everything and attempt to treat serious illness in house, but those are rare.
Life insurance is one of those areas where the millions of choices doesn’t mean you have millions of appropriate choices. For the average very healthy person under 50 probably any independent agent or agency can do a good job of finding a low rate with a good company. As I’ve mentioned before, young healthy buyer beware though. Even though the mega agencies on the internet can find competitive rates, they have a bad habit of signing lucrative bonus contracts to push the bulk of their business toward a certain company. The good news is that the company is generally competitive. The bad news is that, as I’ve noted in so many previous posts, competitive doesn’t mean best. An independent agent doesn’t do the volume and therefore we are never offered these type of contracts. Speaking for myself, I place every case with the best possible price and product for my client. Seems like the right thing to do.
One other note on our perfect health client. Stay away from your auto and homeowner’s agents. You will be outrageously overcharged for life insurance because it isn’t what they do. Sure, they have a product and they are licensed, but having a license doesn’t mean you know what you’re doing and having a product doesn’t mean the price isn’t way too high.
But I want to make a very important distinction. Just like the doctor scenario, if you have some medical issue, a knowledgeable independent agent is where you want to go. We are the specialists in the life insurance business. Just a quick list of what I am talking about will help separate the GP’s from the specialists. If you have diabetes, Hepatitis C, heart disease, a history of cancer, a seizure disorder, mood disorders such as depression, anxiety or bipolar, and on and on. These are issues that it is hard for the average agent to provide good service on. These are issues that will get automatically declined with most property casualty companies (auto, homeowners).
How do you know you’ve called the right person or stepped in the right door? All insurance agents make money from the culmination of a sale, the placing of a policy in force. They all want your business and the truth is that most of them are struggling. There is a real tendency in the business for agents to take on business that they have no idea what to do with, just in hopes that it works out. It usually doesn’t. You know you’ve found the right agent if they show a knowledge of your particular issue by the questions they ask. If they don’t ask questions they don’t have the information it takes for them to come through for you. If they don’t seem to know, for instance, the difference between type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes, they don’t have any business working for you.
Bottom line. Before you commit to applying through an agent, be confident that they know what they’re doing. In my next post I will reveal the secret weapon for weeding out the BSer’s from the straight shooters. It works every time, guaranteed.
May 28th, 2008
Last week I mentioned in a post that there seemed to be something of an epidemic of adult onset type 1 diabetes, a hybrid of sorts that is starting to pick up steam under the new name type 1.5 diabetes.
Here in Colorado, outside of our small epidemic, diabetes was brought to the forefront the other day when the Broncos starting quarterback, Jay Cutler, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (or type 1.5) at the age of 25.
I know it happens more frequently than I’m probably aware, but there is something that just gives you one of those think twice moments when a young adult who is doing all the right things is diagnosed with a manageable, but serious illness.
Bottom line. Life insurance is available at fair rates for those with diabetes, whether type 1, 1.5 or 2 as long as it is well controlled. Check with your independent agent about it today.
May 13th, 2008
My wife was telling me the other day about a man in our church who had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes last week. He’s 40 something years old. I know that most type a diabetes onset is in early years, generally under 25, with the majority of it under age 15.
I also know that adult onset type 1 isn’t an unheard of thing. In fact I posted a blog not too long ago on type 1.5 LADA, essentially adult onset type 1 juvenile diabetes. It isn’t a take off on type 2. It is truly an insulin dependent late onset mutation. Anyway, we talked about the fact that we were able to find several reasonable life insurance offers on the case that brought 1.5 to my attention.
But where I was going with this has to do with the size of town I live in, about 6,000 people. Apparently last week our church friend was one of 10 people in our town that were diagnosed with adult onset type 1. I think, statistically speaking, that number is off the charts.
Bottom line. I hope to be able to interview the doctor (they were all seen by the same doctor) and get his take on how that could happen. Stay tuned.
May 8th, 2008
I’ve mentioned before that there is a problem in the life insurance business. Pure and simple, it’s greed. Agents are so protective of a potential sale that they will actually tell a customer they are uninsurable, rather than admit they are the wrong agent for the job and lead them in the right direction. This is particularly true of captive agents whose world revolves around one company and that company’s underwriting opinion.
Very few days go by without hearing from people who are desperate to find affordable life insurance. They have been declined or told they are uninsurable because they have bipolar disorder. They’ve been told they will never get insurance because they’ve had a heart attack or breast cancer. I’ve had clients who are never called back by another agent because they admitted they had been through alcohol treatment or are have type 1 diabetes..
Agents actually tell these people “you will never get life insurance”. What an insanely unprofessional thing for an agent to do. I can only imagine how many clients just give up and leave their family without protection because some lame excuse for a life insurance agent didn’t have the guts to just tell their client to seek out a more experienced independent agent. You can Google up an independent agent in .23 seconds that has experience in exactly your health issue.
If you talk to an agent and they declare you uninsurable without running your information informally through several underwriters, they are either captive or incompetent. If they say they’ve shopped it and you are simply uninsurable and they don’t talk to you about guaranteed issue life insurance, they are captive or incompetent.
The bottom line is that agents very often declare you uninsurable because they aren’t knowledgeable in your impairment or are too lazy to work an impaired risk case. You know what the issues are with your impairment, and if an agent isn’t asking the right questions, you know you’re with the wrong agent. No one said it’s easy, but quoting Rich Fuller from Special Risk Services, an impaired risk general agent for 30 years, “Anyone can write insurance on the super healthy, but the reward is placing much needed insurance for someone who has suffered severe health problems”.
Bottom line. Never take uninsurable as an answer. Do an internet search for an agent with the expertise you need. Find someone who knows the questions, knows the answers and knows where to shop your business, and just as importantly, where not to shop your business.
April 8th, 2008
There’s really never been bad news when it comes to life insurance underwriting of type 2 diabetes. Would people with diabetes like to pay less for life insurance? Of course they would, which puts them in the same boat with all of us who don’t have diabetes.
Are they paying too much? You know, I would have to answer that question with a resounding no. Life insurance these days, especially term insurance, is such a bargain that really the limiting factor is usually what rate class a person is approved at, but rather are they willing to budget the money for life insurance.
I have frequently compared the underwriting of diabetes to underwriting bipolar disorder or any of the maladies that really do take an aggressive commitment to treatment and control. With diabetes, lack of control can lead to other health issues, and the further down that road a person slips, the less likely they are to find affordable life insurance.
We’ve covered these criteria before, but it never hurts to revisit exactly what life insurance underwriters are looking for. Age of diagnosis is important. That is one of the tough things with type 1 diabetes. Age of onset is generally fairly early in life and the truth is that the longer your body has to cope with diabetes and the potential risk factors, the more likely a person is to fall into collateral health issues. With type 2 diabetes there is an underwriting difference between onset before 40, 40-50, and after 50. The older the onset the more favorable the underwriting. It remains to be seen how underwriting will handle the coming wave of early (teens-30’s) onset.
Control is another big factor. Generally this is measured by the hbA1c, a long term measure of glucose levels. While life insurance underwriters are generally a little more stringent than the ADA recommendations, the ADA isn’t in the insurance business. The truth is that the ADA fails to address life insurance at all for all their claims to be diabetes advocates, but that’s for another post on another day.
Lastly, the underwriters want to see compliance. Nothing bugs an underwriter toward higher rates than reading medical records of someone who isn’t consistent with their prescribed treatment. Only taking medication when you feel like you need it is almost always taking it too late.
Bottom line. There are very competitive rates available to people with diabetes. At least for those who have accepted the challenge and are meeting it.
March 2nd, 2008
With my 2007 reward for Redundiferous Excellence safely tucked away on my office shelf, I am, like Tiger Woods and the Fedex Cup, shooting for two in a row. I hope that I have left no chance unturned to drive home the point that life insurance underwriters want to see compliance with treatment and control of the health issue, almost no matter what health impairment we’re talking about.
For years we have tried to be very clear about what it takes to get fair and affordable life insurance rates with diabetes, whether type 1 or type 2. Underwriters want to know that you are compliant with treatment and monitoring. They really like that a person is concerned enough to make sure they do all the right things. Doing this, in most cases, will lead to control of the disease, which will lend itself to better overall health and a better mortality assumption.
Bipolar disorder is no different. There are extreme cases where treatment helps, but just never seems to put the disorder back on the shelf from which it came, but in most cases bipolar can be controlled. Like diabetes, reasonable life insurance rates are available if the bipolar is not severe or debilitating. This is generally measured by whether or not a person has been hospitalized for it and how stable their life is. If a person is able to carry on a relatively normal family and work life, and they are compliant with recommended treatment, decent rates should be available.
Bottom line. Don’t buy into the normal life insurance agent knee jerk reaction that bipolar = decline. A good independent agent will know what questions to ask and what insurance companies to shop to find what you need.
January 28th, 2008
I was just led to a website today that you should visit if you have type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes. Catchy URL! I got there by typing in www.a1c.org. Sure, It’s a link to an ad, but I’ve always been ok with advertisements if they also provide information that might just open some eyes.
I found their link to insulin myths to be both informative and kind of inspiring. I think there is a real tendency for those with type 2 diabetes to be wary or even scared of using insulin, thinking of it as a last resort. The truth is, not all diabetes reacts the same and whatever it takes to provide you the control you need, is what is going to keep your diabetes from escalating to collateral health issues.
When we discuss diabetes and life insurance, it is all about compliance, control and avoiding risk factors. If the addition of insulin provides the control and you are inspired enough by the control to be compliant with the treatment, risk factors will be avoided and a healthier life will be there for the taking. I’ve worked with plenty of type 2 diabetes clients who use insulin, and underwriters are very accepting of it, if control comes along.
Bottom line. Compliance, control and avoiding risk factors. The mantra of doctors and diabetes educators just happens to be shared by the life insurance industry. Don’t let anyone tell you that diabetes puts you out of the running for good insurance rates.
January 11th, 2008
That could be true of any part of your life. The truth is that compliance with motor vehicle laws and controlling your urge to speed can help you avoid violations that can, in fact, impact your life insurance rates.
But generally speaking, from a life insurance standpoint, compliance and control are referring to your management of a health issue. Whether it is high blood pressure, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, or bipolar disorder, compliance with treatment (taking medication just as prescribed and not just when you feel like it), and having the health issue controlled so that you are managing it and not the reverse, are the two primary ingredients needed for affordable life insurance.
In relation to type 1 diabetes, there are times when even the best effort can’t bring the two ingredients together. Take for instance the issue of brittle diabetes. With most diabetes compliance brings control. In other words, if you take the medication as prescribed, avoid eating the wrong things at the wrong times, and take monitoring seriously, you can expect that your glucose levels will remain in acceptable ranges and the diabetes, while still a piece of work, will not lead to other complications.
With brittle diabetes the rules don’t seem to apply. You can do all the right things all of the time and glucose levels can still swing wildly, basically out of any real control. From a life insurance standpoint this presents a real problem since lack of control will ultimately lead to collateral health complications and the assumption of shorter mortality by insurance underwriters is not just a wild guess.
Bottom line. There are instances when the prudent decision by a life insurance underwriter is to decline coverage. There are instances when even the best independent agent can’t get offers for clients. Fortunately those instances are rare.
December 29th, 2007
I just did a quick gut check on my blogging efforts over the past year. Who really cares about what I believe and what I know about life insurance? Who reads this and really believes that I can do what I claim?
I have had more than just a little interest in weblogs I’ve posted concerning some of the more difficult illnesses and situations to successfully get affordable life insurance with. I’ve had plenty of people take me up on my assertion that if they’ve been declined, it was probably more the fault of the agent and the company, than their own impairment. Here is a quick list of declines from 2007 that came to me looking for help and now have in force life insurance policies.
- Bipolar disorder
- Type 1 diabetes
- Type 2 diabetes
- Epilepsy
- Breast cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Early onset heart disease
- Heart attacks
- ADHD and
- Gastric bypass
This is exciting for me. I’m not in this business to write life insurance for the young and healthy. While I’m glad to help them out, they don’t need me.
My passion lies with those folks that have successfully beaten or at least controlled a disease, only to be slapped in the face by the insurance industry. My passion is to prove the ignorant life insurance agents representing the ignorant life insurance companies wrong. My passion is to turn declines into in force life insurance.
Bottom line. Thank you, all of you, who dig a little deeper and don’t take no for an answer. I am there waiting for you.
December 26th, 2007
Whether you have type 1 diabetes or type 2 diabetes, there is a piece of information you should already know that is crucial in finding the best life insurance rates. If you do not know what your hbA1c, your hemoglobin A1c is, call your doctor and get it.
While you have that doctor on the phone, ask them if there is any other information they have been withholding that is critical to you being a well informed diabetes patient.
For years now we have specialized in helping people with diabetes find affordable life insurance. The first question a life insurance underwriter wants answered is how well your glucose is controlled. The answer to that comes from the labs the doctor does each time they see you and the result they look to is the hbA1c.
This is the same lab result your doctor looks at to determine if your medication levels need to be adjusted. This is information they should discuss with you when you are first diagnosed and each time they do labs. I have never been able to determine what they gain by keeping you in the dark, but their lack of commitment to your knowledge is a disgrace.
Bottom line. My recommendation would be that you get a copy of every set of labs available since you were diagnosed with diabetes. I know that is overwhelming if you were diagnosed 20 years ago, but you should strive to have a file of the last 3 to 5 years. Take some time to study it. Highlight your A1c. Graph it. Know it. Understand that this is a measure of how well you are doing at controlling a disease that left uncontrolled, can lead to terrible consequences. Don’t embarrass yourself by not knowing the simplest of facts about your medical condition.
December 8th, 2007
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