Best Life Insurance Companies for Diabetics in 2024- If you’re among the more than 37 million Americans with diabetes, you typically can buy life insurance, particularly if the disease is under control. However, life insurance will likely come at a steeper price than coverage for someone without diabetes.
Still, having a life insurance policy can ensure that your loved ones have a secure financial future. To find the best life insurance for diabetics we analyzed term life insurance costs and essential coverage features.
Best Life Insurance for Diabetics of 2024
- Banner Life/Legal & General America – Best for Low Face Amount
- Pacific Life – Best for Renewing After the Initial Term
- Protective – Best for Converting to a Permanent Policy
Choosing the Right Life Insurance for Diabetics
No matter what medical conditions you have, the right type of life insurance will depend on how long you want coverage, whether you want to build cash value, and what your financial goals are with a life insurance purchase.
Term Life insurance
Term life insurance usually is the least expensive type of life insurance. It guarantees your rates won’t change during the term of the policy, such as 10, 15, 20, or 30 years. The payout from a term life insurance policy can replace your income during your prime working years and help your family pay off debts.
Permanent Life Insurance
Permanent life insurance costs more than term life insurance. Permanent life insurance, such as whole life insurance or universal life insurance, provides a death benefit to beneficiaries when you die and also can provide the opportunity to build cash value within the policy. You can use the cash value to supplement retirement income or to pay medical bills. Permanent life insurance lasts your entire life—as long as you pay the premiums required.
Guaranteed Issue of Life Insurance
With guaranteed issue life insurance, you can’t be rejected for coverage and there’s no medical exam. If severe diabetes would prevent you from buying a traditional policy, guaranteed issue life insurance could be a last-resort option.
Another consideration: Guaranteed issue policies have graded death benefits. If you pass away within the first couple of years of the policy due to illness, your beneficiaries don’t get the full death benefit. Instead, they get a sum that equals the premiums you paid, with some interest.
Before you purchase this type of policy, work with a life insurance agent to see if you really would be declined for other types of life insurance. Guaranteed-issue life insurance is typically expensive for the amount of coverage you get.
Group Life Insurance
It’s worth maximizing any group life insurance you have through your employer. This type of life insurance covers all employees as a group, but none of the employees are required to divulge their medical history. Death benefits are typically low for group life insurance often a year’s salary or a flat-dollar sum. If you can buy more without having to prove “insurability,” maximize this coverage.
Factors Affecting Life Insurance for Diabetics
Multiple factors affect life insurance rates. Your life insurance rates will be based on your age, gender, how well-controlled your diabetes is, other medical issues you have, how much coverage you buy, and other factors.
Type of Diabetes
Someone with Type 1 diabetes will likely find it tough to qualify for life insurance, much less find inexpensive coverage, says life insurance and wealth consultant Guy Baker, founder and managing director of the Wealth Teams Alliance wealth advisory firm. In part, that’s because someone with Type 1 diabetes must always control the disease with shots or pills.
Someone with Type 2 diabetes “is much more likely to be insurable,” Baker says. Generally speaking, it’s easier to manage Type 2 diabetes than Type 1, in part because people with Type 2 diabetes are still producing insulin.
While you may be able to find life insurance, brace yourself for the quotes. A study by Policygenius found that having Type 2 diabetes “significantly impacts” the cost of life insurance. In addition, younger applicants with Type 2 diabetes will see bigger increases in quotes than older applicants.
For example, Policygenius found that for a 20-year term life insurance policy:
- A 25-year-old female with Type 2 diabetes pays 215% more than her non-diabetic counterpart.
- A 55-year-old female with Type 2 diabetes pays 68% more than her non-diabetic counterpart.
Details Related to Your Diabetes
The life insurance company will generally want to know the following about your condition:
- When you were initially diagnosed.
- How you control your diabetes. For instance, do you manage it primarily through diet and exercise? Or do you take insulin or other medication? Or do you control it through a combination of methods?
- Your A1C levels. An A1C blood test measures your blood sugar levels for the past three months.
- Your most recent blood glucose levels.
- Whether you’ve had complications from diabetes.
Other Health Conditions You Have
Additional medical conditions will increase the cost of life insurance. For example, high blood pressure, a heart condition, or a history of cancer can cause quotes to become quite high. In these cases, it’s especially important to work with an experienced life insurance agent, who will know how to identify the insurers that will be most likely to offer you coverage.
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