Good life insurance rates when you take your diabetes to the YMCA!!

Competitive life insurance quotes have long been elusive for people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Many life insurance companies are changing the way they view diabetes and recognizing that there is a substantial difference in the mortality experience between those who choose to meet the challenges of being diabetic head on and those who aren’t that concerned.

Bottom line for life insurance underwriters, whether you are applying for term insurance, whole life or universal life is YMCA! Actually it really ends up being YMCCARF, but it’s my blog and close counts. The acronym stands for YOU MONITOR, CONTROL AND ARE COMPLIANT WITH ALL RISK FACTORS.

You monitor your glucose frequently, preferably more than once a day. If you have hypertension (one of the risk factors) you check it frequently. If you are overweight (another risk factor) you work on changing eating habits and beginning an exercise program. And you monitor the overall effect by seeing your doctor at least 4 times a year and discussing your lab results, specifically your A1C. If you are diabetic and don’t know what your A1C is, time to wake up and do some study.

A definition from www.metrika.com is “A1C, also known as glycated hemoglobin or glycosylated hemoglobin, indicates a patient’s blood sugar control over the last 2-3 months. A1C is formed when glucose in the blood binds irreversibly to hemoglobin to form a stable glycated hemoglobin complex. Since the normal life span of red blood cells is 90-120 days, the A1C will only be eliminated when the red cells are replaced; A1C values are directly proportional to the concentration of glucose in the blood over the full life span of the red blood cells. A1C values are not subject to the fluctuations that are seen with daily blood glucose monitoring.” The A1C is the benchmark of control that an independent life insurance agent will need to know to be able to find you the lowest rates.

Compliance with your treatment is critical, not only to your health, but to competitive life insurance quotes. Taking medication occasionally or only when you feel like you need it isn’t what your doctor prescribed. Eating a more healthy diet except on weekends isn’t what your doctor prescribed.

Compliance and control!!! You can negate the impact of the diabetes on your physical life and you can also negate the impact on your life insurance rates. Compliance and control!!

Diabetics move up the life insurance ladder!!

From a life insurance standpoint type 1 and type 2 diabetics used to be thrown in the same underwriting bucket as people who had coronary artery disease or even some types of cancer. Life insurance quotes coming from major companies these days would point to two good things happening that have retrieved people with diabetes from that bucket.

First and foremost is earlier diagnosis and better treatment than we have seen in the past. When diabetes is recognized before it causes any collateral damage and a patient is educated in all of the aspects of good control, the chances are that a person can live their life with minimal impact. Doctors and life insurance underwriters understand that managing build (weight), hypertension, and glucose levels, along with consistently taking the prescribed medication, and getting regular checkups can lead to a long healthy life and, in the case of life insurance, lower life insurance quotes.

Key to low life insurance quotes and approved rates, is the A1C level that your doctor tests each time you see him. Unlike a glucose reading, a snapshot of the moment, an A1C tells you what your glucose average has been over the past 3 months or so. This is important, as there are diabetics that will fool themselves into believing they have good control because when they check their glucose every morning it is good and low. The A1C changes the snapshot to a photo album of the past three months and catches all of the good readings and all of the readings you might not take.

If you don’t know, ask your doctor today what your A1C is. If it is below 7, congratulations, good life insurance rates, whether you want term insurance, universal life or whole life, are within your grasp. Below 6.5 is better yet and below 6 is awesome. Above 7 is still very doable as long as you remember that the other risk factors need to be just as well controlled. So, bottom line is if you are diabetic and you take it seriously and take care of yourself, an independent life insurance agent is going to be able to get you good quotes that you earned through your hard work.

Type 1 diabetes and life insurance!

Type 1 diabetes, often call juvenile diabetes, has had a rough road with life insurance underwriters over the years. There has been a recent shift toward what is call “clinical underwriting” that has brought the type 1 diabetic issue into a fairer light.

Type 1 or type 2 diabetes can both have severe collateral effects on the body if not well controlled. Type 1 diabetes always concerned underwriters more because with more years to work on the body and cause collateral issues, the chances seemed greater that the disease could have a negative impact on mortality, the very basis for life insurance quotes.

The shift in underwriting has come with the realization that well controlled type 1 diabetes has a much lower chance of causing collateral health issues and therefore has a very small impact on mortality expectations. That leads to lower life insurance rates.

 What do underwriters look for? An A1C of under 7, under 6.5 would be optimal. A person who takes their diabetes management seriously, checking glucose frequently and having a review with their doctor at least every 3 months is a positive thing. Bottom line, a diabetic who cares enough to take care of themselves, has a great chance of getting great life insurance quotes.

Why you should use an independent life insurance agent!

Let’s start with an analogy. Suppose you have just made a decision that it is time to buy a car and that, like me, you live in a thriving metropolis of 6000 people. There are two car dealerships, neither of whom have anything close to a large selection, and because we are in the boonies, neither offer what could be called competitive prices. Two hours away is a city of 600,000 with 20 or 30 car dealerships, fiercely competitive, and with every conceivable choice in stock.

Now I am a home town supportive kind of guy, but when it comes to a purchase as big and important as a car, I shop it. I find out the best thing available to me here at home and then I drive two hours and compare. Large inventory and better prices wins every time.

An independent life insurance agent is all about large inventory, more choices and better prices. Their opposite, the captive agent, writes for one company. Companies that have captive agents are historically overpriced and the agent knows that, but can’t steer you to a better price or they’ll starve. If they try to help you out by writing a policy that is better for you through another company, the may lose their job.

We’ve talked about all the different criteria that companies use to underwrite policies, like build, cholesterol level, hypertension, asthma, diabetes, and family history for example. With a captive agent you are stuck with one set of criteria. With an independent life insurance agent you may be working with as much as 40-50 different sets of criteria. In a previous blog I showed how the difference in underwriting between one company and another can easily mean a difference of 60%-70% in price.

A captive agent is generally licensed in one state. If you do business with them and move to another state, you become what’s known in the industry as an orphan. Sometimes you will be called by a new agent in your new state that is also a captive agent. Sometimes you never hear from anyone again. Most independent agents are licensed at least in multiple states. More and more you will find agents that are licensed in all states, so they can literally service your policy wherever you live.

So, why do I harp on the need to use an independent life insurance agent. Life insurance is an important purchase. We are talking about benefits that could affect your family’s future in a huge way. An independent agent can offer life insurance quotes that exactly meet your needs, at prices that cannot be met by captive agents. An independent agent can offer a wider variety of products, whether you are looking for term insurance, universal life or whole life,  with better guarantees and benefits.

The question should really be why “wouldn’t” you use an independent life insurance agent.

Diagnosed with diabetes on a life insurance exam??

I don’t think I would be overstating the subject at all if I said that at least once a week I have a client who, for the first time, discovers they have a health issue because the life insurance exam lab results bring it to light. Some of the most frequent revelations that come from those lab results are high cholesterol often coupled with low HDL (good cholesterol), elevated liver functions, elevated PSA (prostate specific antigen) and very often elevated glucose accompanied by an elevated A1C, a measure of long term glucose averages.

While life insurance agents shouldn’t practice medicine, the next step should be to encourage their clients to see a doctor and get a professional opinion. After they’ve done that, a good independent agent can give them guidance as to the steps that are necessary to get them back on the path toward competitive life insurance quotes.

There is especially good news for a person whose labs indicate undiagnosed borderline diabetes. That is to say that they have an A1C of 6.5 or less. If all other risk factors are favorable, an independent agent has access to rates for that person that are as good as Superman can get, provided Superman’s labs are normal also.

For those that have already been diagnosed with diabetes, there is more good news. Provided they have good control, an A1C of 7.0 or less with all other risk factors being favorable, better than standard rates are very attainable. It is not unrealistic for a type 1 diabetic that does all the right things and whose labs show well controlled glucose levels, and no collateral health issues, to be able to get preferred rates. It is completely reasonable to expect a type 2 diabetic who is prudently taking care of their overall health to get preferred or standard plus rates. These are good rates folks. There are plenty of us who are happy to get those rates without the challenge of diabetes.

In summary, the way to life insurance rates for either a type 1 or type 2 diabetic is control. An A1C (and please, if you don’t know yours, call your doctor) of 7.0 or less is good, 6.5 or less is great. Between 7 and 8 is still in the running for good rates as long as the other risk factors are in control. I’ve mentioned the other risk factors a few times. What underwriters want to see is, if there is hypertension (high blood pressure) that it is well controlled. If you are overweight and your medical records show that you are doing something about it, that is a real plus. They want to see compliance with your physician. Stated another way, do everything and exactly what the doctor says religiously. They want to see people who are consistent about self monitoring and about doctor followups.

Checking your glucose occasionally and going to the doctor once a year is not the way to good health or good life insurance rates.

Life insurance for diabetics!

Because of all of the health risks associated with poorly controlled type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes, life insurance underwriters take a cautious approach. What the underwriters are looking for can be summed up in three words. Control! Control! Control!

While the risks are huge when a diabetic has poor control, the mortality risk drops dramatically when diabetes and associated health issues such as build (weight) and hypertension are watched carefully and controlled and monitored prudently.

If you are diabetic and looking for the best possible life nsurance quote, just a few guidelines. First, use an independent life insurance agent. Armed with your specific information they can shop for you across a wide range of companies. Since companies change underwriting guidelines, often without any warning or even any notice to life insurance agents, shopping your case allows an agent to find the best rate and lock it in.

Second, know your lab results and your medications. Life insurance underwriters really don’t care if your last glucose reading was 104. Every time you see the doctor they will test your A1C or hbA1C. This gives a long term (3 month) look at your glucose averages. I won’t pretend to know how it works, but it will tell your doctor and the underwriter if that 104 is normal or if you just caught a good reading. For instance, an A1C reading of 7.0 would mean your glucose average is around 130. That means for every time your glucose was around 100, it spent an equal amount of time around 160. Not bad control, but certainly not as good as if your average glucose was 104, which would equate to an A1C of around 5.9.

Know your average blood pressure. The more information an agent and an underwriter have, the better the job they can do for you. And this may seem silly, but know your weight. Don’t guess at it. For those of us who have weighed more than we should have at some point, we have a tendency to estimate. Being off by 10, 15 or 20 pounds can make a big difference in the overall picture and the immediate accuracy of your life insurance quote.

Lastly, if you have been diabetic for a while and have become bored with the details, now is the time to get back in touch. Find out what your last 3 A1C readings were. On your last urinalysis was there any protein in the urine. Find out if there has been any significant changes in your blood pressure readings in the past few years. Know what your cholesterol, hdl and ldl readings are. And get on an accurate scale and know what your weight is. The knowledge you gain will help your independent life insurance agent do the best job for you. They will also benefit you in monitoring your health.

Life insurance for diabetics can be very affordable if you follow the right steps and are taking care of yourself.

The key to good life insurance prices – well controlled health issues!

Unless your worst affliction in life was a sneezing fit 5 years ago, you may have discovered that life insurance often comes at a higher rate due to certain health issues. While you may not get the same rates as superman if you happen to be a type 2 diabetic, good, reasonable rates are still available if you take care of yourself and have your diabetes, whether type 1 or type 2, under good control.

Just to give you a heads up what the underwriters are looking for when they review your labs and your file, control for a diabetic comes under the label of A1C or hbA1C. Your doctor may have talked to you about the test they do that gives them a 3 month overview of your average glucose readings. That is the A1C. The reason underwriters use this measure is that a fasting glucose reading gives them a snapshot of your condition when you are minding your manners. The A1C averages all of those good snapshots with all of the bad ones. It tells them overall if you have good or poor control.

In general an A1C of 6.5 or lower is considered very good control, 6.5 to 7.0 is good control, 7.0-8.0 is moderate control, 8.0 to 9.0 is poorly controlled and over 9.0 is likely to be uninsurable.

Hypertension in combination with type 2 diabetes is considered a problem. If you have that combination, both need to be under good control if you want reasonable insurance rates. Build, height and weight, is also an issue that needs to be considered.

Bottom line. Get with a good independent insurance agent who understands how and where to find the best life insurance quotes for diabetics. Before you even contact them, if you don’t already know, call your doctor and find out what your last A1C was. The more you know about your type1 diabetes or your type 2 diabetes, the better the chances are that your term insurance or universal life insurance will be at a price that agrees with your budget.