Insurance and Diabetes - Availability and Shortfalls

The insurance market shows a friendlier face today to people with diabetes than it did a few years ago. Some major breakthroughs have been achieved, but in terms of the goals of the Diabetes Federation of Ireland, it is still a work in progress.

Below we summarise the more usual areas where a person with diabetes interfaces with the world of insurance. The Diabetes Federation is continuing its mission to further improve matters through ongoing negotiations with Government and the insurance market.

So what is it like for someone with diabetes looking for common forms of insurance?

Motor insurance
This is the area where the greatest progress has been made. A person with diabetes seeking to insure their car can now do so knowing that all members of the Insurance Federation have agreed that they will not load their premiums for diabetes.

For decades, many people with diabetes withheld details of their condition from their insurer knowing that they would either be refused cover or loaded. We are now in a more enlightened time and everyone should disclose details to their insurer. This also holds true for the Licensing Authority. Confirmation from their GP that they are fit to drive will keep everyone happy.

House insurance
No problem… no discrimination exists.

Travel insurance
Regrettably, this is an area that is still fraught with danger for the unwary traveller. Most travel insurance policies purchased these days, whether direct from low cost airlines, travel agents, insurance brokers or direct from an insurance company, will have a general exclusion in respect of claims arising out of a pre-existing condition.

This means that someone with diabetes who finds themselves suffering from complications while abroad would have to pay their own hospital bills, unless they had disclosed their condition in advance to their insurer and received confirmation in writing that they would be covered.

Even if they were hospitalised for another reason, say a car accident, and their treatment was complicated by their diabetes they would be refused cover. The good news is that cover is available so don’t get caught out.

Life insurance
There is no avoiding that the insurance market will always load for diabetes whether it is type 1 or type 2. Loadings vary between insurers based on their assessment of the individual’s health and management of their diabetes.

In some cases insurers refuse to quote if they feel the mortality risk is too high. Still at other times they postpone a decision until some future date, perhaps six months or 12 months, to see if certain improvements can be achieved.

Such decisions can be particularly traumatic for someone buying a house.

Mortgage lenders will usually insist on life cover being in place before allowing the funds to be drawn down to complete a purchase. If cover is not available the purchaser may be unable to proceed and forfeit their deposit if contracts have been exchanged with the builder.

Anyone over 18 can enter into a life insurance contract. The motto should be that the sooner you arrange life cover the better.

Income protection
No progress here. It is not available on an individual basis but may be available on a company group basis.

Specified illness cover
Again, cover is unavailable on an individual basis. An exclusive group plan is available to members of the Diabetes Federation aged between 18 and 60.
Cover is on a whole-of-life basis and does not stop at some arbitrary age such as 65, but continues for all of one’s life.

Investment products, pensions and PRSAs
These are not affected by diabetes.

For details about insurance schemes contact the Diabetes Federation on 1850 909 909

APP/KOL/AC03/10/2008

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Driving and Diabetes

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