Life insurance underwriting for diabetes as a stand-alone issue and heart disease as a stand-alone issue have made great strides in the past 10 years. This is partly due to a better understanding of the mortality risk when the conditions are well controlled. It is also partly due to improvements in diagnosis and treatment.
If you use diabetes and heart disease in the same sentence with a life insurance underwriter, based on recent studies that have show the combination to be very longevity unfriendly, the welcome mat might not be rolled out as quickly as it used to be.
From a mortality assumption view, there is a problematic revolving door with the combination of diabetes and heart disease. Diabetes is a major contributor to the onset of heart disease. If diabetes came first, then it was likely the cause of the heart disease and the likelihood that the heart disease will be easily managed is made more difficult by the diabetes.
If the heart disease came first, then the onset of diabetes generally means that the likelihood of the heart disease not becoming worse is slim. Added to that is the fact that if the diabetes came after the heart disease, then there is a strong chance that the person didn’t take the heart disease seriously (maybe they got off easy as in no heart attack, just an angioplasty). This may have led to weight gain or lifestyle choices that produced the opportunity for onset of diabetes.
Having painted that rosy picture, is it impossible to get life insurance if you have heart disease and diabetes together? The answer is no, as long as you are taking both problems seriously and are compliant with your physicians and determined about controlling your diabetes.
This is not a combination that is easily insured. The Hinerman Group has the experience to do the best job possible.
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