Thursday, October 28, 2010
Oliver Pereira
Diabetes is a complicated disease and a serious lifelong condition and is a leading cause of blindness, heart disease and kidney disease. Providing fair and reasonable underwriting terms for people with diabetes can be tricky at the best of times and because of this, it can affect your chances to get life insurance.
Type 2 diabetes is by far the most common form of diabetes In New Zealand about 270,000 people have Type 2 diabetes and about one third of cases of Type 2 diabetes are undiagnosed. The numbers of people developing Type 2 diabetes is rapidly increasing. In some groups of people up to 12% of them will have Type 2 diabetes once they are aged over 40 years.
Type 2 diabetes most often occurs in adulthood usually after the ages of 30 – 40 years. In Type 2 diabetes, either the body doesn’t produce enough insulin, or the cells in the body don’t recognise the insulin that is present. The end result is the same: high levels of glucose in your blood.
Of all the people with diabetes about 10% of them have Type 1 diabetes. In New Zealand about 15,000 people have Type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes most often occurs in childhood, often in children aged 7 – 12 years. However it can occur at any age – from tiny babies to very old people. Most people with Type 1 are producing none of their own insulin.
Because life insurance polices are allowed to charge your premium based upon your health status, getting a good policy can be extremely pricey or not even an option. Having diabetes puts you in an impaired risk category that will often make insurance companies asses this risk very seriously before offering you a policy.
Despite all this, though, there is hope in finding an affordable life insurance policy for yourself or for a loved one. There are many things you can do to make yourself more attractive to the insurance companies. One thing you can do is present yourself as a good risk. As diabetes is often a self-managed disease, you can make sure that you have good habits. This combined with a good blood glucose control and a healthy lifestyle can make you a more attractive candidate to insurers. Similarly, you will want to find an Insurance company that does what is called "clinical underwriting." While the insurance companies usually ask for medical information from the client’s doctor, any additional lifestyle information always helps in the underwriting process. In this process, as they access the risk of selling you a policy, they will consider your overall health and habits.
As with any insurance search, it pays to be persistent; don't take no for an answer and if one Insurance company turns you down, simply approach another one! Take referrals from friends and family and do your best not to be discouraged. Persistence and determination will pay off and remember that even with diabetes, you will be able to find good life insurance. Insurance companies with experience in impaired risk situations will be more likely to help you than ones without; keep in mind that there are many, many people in your particular situation and that affordable life insurance policy are quite possible.
One thing to remember is that the help of a good insurance agent in invaluable in your search for insurance. A good agent will be able to bring your case to the attention of the policy providers who will most likely be able to help you out and can greatly expedite the process. A good agent will also be able to get your case out to a number of places at once; life insurance is something that should not be delayed, and a refusal can take up a few weeks to process.
Even if you or someone in your family has issues with diabetes, this does not mean that life insurance will be impossibility for you. Having Life Insurance is not a luxury and provides security to your family and lifestyle.
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