Type 2 diabetes, also known as adult onset diabetes or non-insulin dependent diabetes, is on the rise all over the world, getting press that uses the word epidemic frequently.
From a life insurance standpoint, type 2 diabetes is underwritten with an eye to where it came from and where it can lead. In life insurance these directions are known as the risk factors and the collateral health issues.
Obesity is the primary risk factor for the onset of type 2 diabetes. Being overweight dramatically increases your risk of diabetes. Underwriters take this into account when they review an application for someone who is obese. It isn’t just a person’s build they have to be concerned with, but the very real possibility that they may end up with diabetes. If you are overweight and have diabetes, then the underwriting focus turns to collateral health issues.
Collateral health issues that are a challenge in underwriting diabetes are such notables as heart disease and stroke. Health problems like these are common among people with diabetes and this affects their mortality. Mortality experience is the basis for setting life insurance rates.
So, what do life insurance underwriters want to see if you are diabetic? The two C’s, compliance and control. Compliance, simply put, is do you follow the doctor’s orders? Are you monitoring your glucose levels and taking medication as prescribed, or do you just take medication when you’re feeling diabetic?
Control is measured, from an underwriter’s standpoint, by a test that your doctor will do about every three months call an A1c, or hbA1c, or hemoglobin A1c. If you have diabetes and don’t know your A1c, it’s time to pull your head out of the sand. This measures your average glucose levels over the past three months. It’s not a feel good take my glucose first thing in the morning before I chow down test. It’s reality. It averages all the good readings with all of the bad readings and tells the story the way it is.
Control also includes risk factors and collateral health issues. If you have diabetes and are overweight, underwriters want to see you working on the weight issue. If you have diabetes and high blood pressure, they want to see you taking care of the blood pressure. Cholesterol needs to be controlled.
Compliance and control!! The only way you can get good life insurance rates if you have type 2 diabetes.
More Information about diabetes