Life Insurance With Diabetes

What Underwriters Look At

How might living with diabetes affect an application for cover?

It may bring extra questions, and gathering the details together first can make each one simpler to answer.

We’ll work through what an insurer may ask about your diabetes, and gather the details with you.

The insurer’s underwriter makes the decision on each application. With diabetes, the questions can reach the type, your age at diagnosis, your treatment, your results over recent months and any complications. Each insurer sets its own approach, so we start with your situation.

What an insurer may ask about, from diagnosis to recent results:

• Type 1 or type 2 diabetes, and your age when it was diagnosed
• Treatment for diabetes, whether diet, tablets, injectables, insulin or a pump, and any recent change
• Your most recent HbA1c, and how your glucose readings have trended over recent months
• How often you check blood glucose, by meter or sensor, across the day and night
• Results of eye, kidney, nerve and foot checks, including any complication of diabetes found
• Blood pressure, cholesterol, weight and smoking status, which an insurer may ask about alongside diabetes
• Visits to a GP, endocrinologist or diabetes educator, and the management plan you follow
• Any other diagnosis tied to blood sugar, such as LADA, insulin resistance, or diabetes after pancreatitis or steroid treatment

Life Insurance

If something happened to you, what would you want the people you care for to have?

Life insurance can pay your beneficiaries a lump sum towards debts and living costs, so support can continue.

We’ll set out what a life application may ask about your blood sugar history, and help you gather it first.

Life insurance can pay a lump sum if you pass away. A life application can include its own medical checks, such as a blood test that analyses glucose or a urine test for glucose, so a raised blood sugar result is part of the conversation too. A 2019 Diabetes Australia guide to life insurance suggests a medical examination before you apply.

What we work through with you for a life application:

• Age at diagnosis and the years since, two details a life application with diabetes can ask about
• Blood tests analysing glucose, which can be part of a life application’s medical checks
• Urine tests for glucose, which an insurer may include in the checks for life cover
• A check-up with your own GP before applying, so your recent results are known to you first
• Pre-diabetes or a raised blood sugar result, answered as the life application asks
• Type 2 found at a routine check, and the treatment and results since, set out for a life application
• Insulin resistance or a past gestational diabetes, and the blood sugar results since, set out for a life application
• Complications such as eye or kidney changes, set out from specialist letters for a life application

Learn more about Life Insurance

TPD Insurance

Where would your income come from if you were never able to work again?

One source is TPD insurance, which can pay a lump sum if you can never work again, as the policy defines it.

We can weigh own-occupation and any-occupation TPD against your work, with any complications of diabetes in view.

TPD insurance pays a lump sum when illness or injury leaves you unlikely to work again, as the policy defines it. Own-occupation TPD looks at your usual work, and any-occupation looks at work suited to your education, training or experience. Complications that affect sight, nerves, feet or kidneys can be relevant to how a TPD definition applies, and work involving driving, heights or machinery is part of what an insurer considers.

What we compare with you for TPD:

• Own-occupation and any-occupation TPD, compared for work that involves driving, heights or machinery
• Complications affecting sight, nerves or feet, and what permanent incapacity means in a TPD definition
• Kidney function and any kidney treatment, which a TPD application may ask about with diabetes
• Your occupation and duties set out clearly, including any shift or remote work and how you manage diabetes there
• Eye changes from diabetes, and work that relies on a licence or close vision, read against the TPD definition
• TPD bought before a diabetes diagnosis, and how that policy’s definition reads against your work today
• A move onto insulin, and how that change in treatment is described in a TPD application
• Specialist, eye and foot appointments, counted as ongoing costs when sizing a TPD lump sum

Learn more about TPD Insurance

Income Protection

How would you like your budget looked after if illness or injury paused your pay?

Regular costs can still be met, as income protection can pay part of your income once a waiting period has passed.

We’ll explain the income protection terms an insurer may offer with diabetes, and what each would pay for.

Income protection can replace part of your income if illness or injury stops you working, subject to its waiting period, definitions and exclusions. If an application isn’t accepted on standard terms, the insurer may decide to offer an exclusion for the condition or a higher premium. The wording of any exclusion decides what the policy still pays for. Premiums on cover held outside super and paid by you are generally tax deductible; your accountant can confirm your own position.

What we explain on income protection:

• A longer waiting period chosen for a lower premium, weighed against any time off a diabetes complication could need
• The benefit period you choose, and how long it would pay if a diabetes complication kept you off work
• Which claims a diabetes exclusion would rule out, read from the exclusion’s own wording with you
• A premium loading on income protection for diabetes, and how it differs from an exclusion
• Eye treatment or a foot problem needing time off, and how the policy’s definition of disability applies
• Starting insulin or another new diabetes medicine, with the date it began and any time off work around it
• Insulin, pump and sensor costs, kept in the budget when choosing how much income to insure
• Gestational diabetes in a past pregnancy, and whether and how an income protection application asks about it

Learn more about Income Protection

Trauma Insurance

What might help with the extra costs of a serious illness, besides your savings?

Trauma cover can pay a lump sum alongside your savings, for a listed condition that meets the policy’s definition and isn’t excluded.

We can read the diabetes events in a trauma policy with you, and explain what each definition requires.

Trauma insurance pays a lump sum when a listed condition meets the policy’s definition. Some policies list severe diabetes, named and worded differently, defined by specialist-confirmed complications to the eyes, nerves, kidneys or circulation; some list type 1 diagnosed after a policy-set age as a partial benefit. A condition you already have may be excluded, according to the exclusion’s wording. New trauma cover can’t be held inside super, which has been the rule for policies written since 1 July 2014.

What we read with you in a trauma policy:

• Severe diabetes as a trauma event, where a policy lists it, and the severity its definition requires
• Type 1 diabetes diagnosed after an age the policy sets, a partial benefit in some policies, with its own wording
• A diabetes diagnosis you already have, which means a new policy’s diabetes events may be excluded
• Raised fasting glucose, which can also bear on how a policy’s diabetes events are offered
• A family history of diabetes, which can bear on the diabetes events in a new trauma policy
• Eye, nerve or kidney changes from diabetes, the complications severe diabetes definitions are built from, read against each wording
• Specialist reports and test results a diabetes event claim may need, read from the definition’s wording
• Diabetes events in two trauma policies, read side by side, since their names and wording can differ

Learn more about Trauma Insurance

Your Health History, Answered Carefully

Is it clear what to include when you answer the health questions?

Matching each question to your results and letters can help you see what to include and answer with reasonable care.

We can match each health question to your results, prescriptions and specialist letters before anything is signed.

Since 5 October 2021, the duty when applying for consumer life cover is to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation, which means answering the questions asked with reasonable care. If you leave out important details, the insurer may change or cancel your cover or refuse a claim (Moneysmart). With diabetes, the dates of a diagnosis, any change to that diagnosis and any change of treatment are details worth confirming from your records first.

What we go through together before anything is signed:

• The date of your diabetes diagnosis, and of any move onto insulin, confirmed from your records
• Gestational diabetes in a past pregnancy, answered as any question about diabetes or raised blood sugar asks
• A pre-diabetes result from a check-up, included where a question asks about raised blood sugar
• A changed diagnosis, such as type 2 later found to be LADA, with both dates taken from your records
• Medication for diabetes, including any steroid medicine linked to raised blood sugar, listed with doses and any recent change
• Unclear questions about blood sugar or insulin resistance, raised with us before an answer is written
• Pump or continuous glucose monitor use, described as each form’s question about treatment asks
• A parent’s or sibling’s diabetes, given as you know it where a form’s family history question asks

Applying With Help

What happens between deciding on cover and getting an answer from the insurer?

Each stage, from your recent results to the insurer’s answer, can be lined up with you in a clear order.

We can line up your recent results, a doctor’s report and any questionnaire before an application goes in.

Where an insurer offers a condition questionnaire, such as one on diabetes or raised blood sugar, it may let the underwriter decide without further medical evidence. A doctor’s report or your most recent blood test results may also be requested. If alternative terms are offered, they can be discussed with your financial adviser before you accept.

How we prepare an application with you:

• Questionnaires on diabetes or raised blood sugar, where an insurer offers one, which may avoid further medical evidence
• Specialist letters for each step of a changed diagnosis, gathered in date order before you apply
• Your most recent blood test results, which an insurer may request alongside a doctor’s report
• An endocrinologist’s or GP’s report on your diabetes care, if an underwriter asks for one
• Timing around a new diagnosis or a change of treatment, where a deferral is possible
• Any loading or diabetes exclusion offered, with what each would mean for your cover before you accept
• A previous decline or exclusion linked to diabetes, and how a new application answers it
• A fresh HbA1c or other blood sugar result arriving before cover starts, shared as the application requires

Cover You May Already Hold

Is any cover you already hold, in super or elsewhere, still suited to your needs?

Before any change of job, hours or fund, a review of any cover you hold can show which parts still suit you.

We can review any cover in your name, your super or through work before a change of job, hours or fund.

Cover you already hold was issued on its own terms, and the policy wording sets when they can change, so it’s worth reading before you change or replace it. That is especially worth doing for any policy taken out before a diabetes diagnosis. Default cover inside super can usually be issued without medical checks, though it may carry pre-existing condition rules set out in the fund’s PDS, and increasing it is usually underwritten like any other application.

What we check with you before anything changes:

• Cover arranged before a diabetes diagnosis, and the policy schedule showing what it was issued on
• Pre-diagnosis cover in a super account you plan to close, since replacing it may mean applying again
• Group cover through an employer, which can end with the job, though some policies let you continue it
• Changing jobs, reducing hours, stopping work or changing super funds, talked through with us first
• Any cover held across more than one super account, and which policy to keep with your diabetes history in mind
• Premiums on a pre-diagnosis policy that keep rising, weighed against reapplying with diabetes now
• Cover bought online without health questions, which may carry more exclusions or narrower definitions
• A claim on existing cover for a diabetes complication, made with you under the policy’s own terms

Learn more about Life Cover With a Health Condition