A diabetic can face a long and taxing search, if he or she wants to get life insurance. One word should remain foremost in the mind of a diabetic who sets out on such a quest. That word is “control.� Control of diabetic symptoms determines some of the significant decisions about insurance, insurance relating to diabetes.

A man or woman who sells life insurance wants proof that a diabetic has his or her diabetes under control. A man or woman who sells life insurance knows how diabetes can affect the various body organs. A diabetic who has managed to control his or her diabetes has lowered the chances that he or she might suffer from fatal damage to one or more organs. For that reason he or she has a better chance for getting life insurance.

Armed with that information, a diabetic has clear guidelines on insurance relating to diabetes. Such insurance eludes those who fail to produce proof that their diabetes is under control. How then can someone with diabetes show control of that diabetes?

A diabetic who makes regular visits to a licensed physician can produce proof that he or she has learned how to control diabetes. In the offices of a licensed physician, a diabetic can be scheduled for all of the appropriate tests. Such tests can be used to detect signs of neuropathy and peripheral vascular disease. Such tests can measure blood pressure. Such tests can also confirm the blood glucose levels measured by the diabetic at home.

The diabetic who takes the time to visit a general practitioner or a family physician is more apt to set aside time for visiting an ophthalmologist. A diabetic who has his or her eyes examined on an annual basis increases the chances that an eye test might detect any signs of damage to blood vessels in the retina. Early detection of such damage allows corrective action to be taken in the earliest stages of retinopathy.

When eye damage is detected in the early stages of retinopathy, then such damage can be more easily corrected. Damage to any organ, damage that has been caused by diabetes, responds best to medication whenever doctors administer that medication well before the damage accelerates. Diabetics who have been prescribed medication and diabetics who are taking that medication can rightly claim that they have control of their diabetes.

A third measure of control falls outside the circle of elements that can be modified and moderated by the diabetic patient. Insurers like to see that a diabetic can demonstrate a positive response to any administered diabetes treatment. Insurers can differ as to the length of time during which the diabetic must show such a positive response.

The measures that control diabetes do not always hold primary importance to sellers of insurance relating to diabetes. The measures that control diabetes receive the most careful examination when a diabetic wants to get a medically underwritten life insurance plan. In that case, the diabetic usually wants his or her diabetes to receive the “right� (lowest cost) classification.

Each diabetic who applies for a medically underwritten life insurance policy has his or her care for that diabetes placed under the “microscope� of the prospective insurer. The insurer looks for evidence of a yearly visit to the office of an ophthalmologist. The insurer examines the medical records, records with information on the diabetic’s blood pressure and body weight. Insurers use such information to classify each case of diabetes.

If insurers feel that a case of diabetes is well-controlled by the diabetic patient, then the diabetic patient receives a “super preferred� classification. If the insurer decides that the patient has a respectable control of his or her diabetes, then the patient receives a “preferred� classification. Patients “preferred� by the insurance company enjoy lower policy premiums.

If a patient can show that he or she has a satisfactory amount of control over his or her diabetes, that patient generally receives a “standard� classification. If a patient can not demonstrate satisfactory control of his or her diabetes, then that patient can expect to receive a “substandard� classification. A patient who manages to fall into those last two classifications should expect to pay high policy premiums.

When a diabetic realizes that he or she has been put in either the “standard� or the “substandard� class, then that diabetic might want to seek an alternative to the medically underwritten life insurance policy. Is there such an alternative, and if so, what is it?

A “simplified issue� life insurance policy offers diabetics a promising alternative to the medically underwritten life insurance policy. While not necessarily cheaper than the medically underwritten policy, the “simplified issue� policy offers the diabetic greater hope for purchase of a life insurance plan. It is that hope that motivates many diabetics to consider buying “simplified issue� life insurance.

Diabetics must understand that insurers look differently at Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes. Insurers are greatly impressed by evidence of response to treatment by those who have Type 2 diabetes. Yet they do not give the same amount of recognition to response to treatment shown by those with Type 1 diabetes.

While this distinct ion might strike any diabetic as “odd� or “unfair,� it underlines the confusion experienced by insurers. When selling insurance relating to diabetes, insurers can not ignore the vast amount of information on the damaging effects of diabetes. Diabetes is one of the best studied chronic medical conditions.

Insurers are gradually getting more information about cancer treatments. Perhaps in the near future that two will be considered a chronic medical condition. Meanwhile, other medical conditions, such as Adult Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (ANPH), continue to present medicine with many unanswered questions.

Patients with one of the less-studied conditions can sometimes test in a way that hides all evidence of that condition. At the present time, insurers can find it difficult to detect signs that a client has ANPH. In the future insurers might classify those who have ADPH.

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Christopher Berry
Diabetic Discussion