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.
This post is somewhat dated. Life insurance underwriting is changing and evolving continually. For more updated information check out some of the key word links. If you have a specific question or topic you need information for do a search. If you don’t find the answers you need contact me and we’ll make sure you get the information that is important to you.
My 20 years of experience give me the knowledge and leverage to find reasonably-priced life insurance for people who have been declined or are paying more than they need to.
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