Clone this shape for all eight condition pages. The section order is fixed on purpose:
it answers the searcher's question in the first 40 words, then earns the rest of the read.
Sections marked with ▸ are the ones that change per condition.
Life insurance with diabetes
Most diabetics can buy life insurance, and a meaningful share buy it at standard rates. The diagnosis is not what prices your policy. Three numbers do: your A1c, how old you were when you were diagnosed, and whether you take insulin.
Get those three in front of the right carrier and the outcome is often better than people expect. Get them in front of the wrong one and you'll be declined by a company that simply doesn't write diabetic business.
What the underwriter is actually reading
An underwriter looking at a diabetic file works through a short list, roughly in this order.
Your A1c, and its trend. A single reading matters less than a series. Two years of stable readings in a good range is a materially different file from one good reading after three bad ones, even when the latest number is identical. Carriers want evidence of control, and control is a pattern.
Age at diagnosis. Diagnosed at 55, you have a shorter runway of exposure ahead of you than someone diagnosed at 25, and the pricing reflects that. This is the factor applicants find most counterintuitive — a later diagnosis often rates better than an earlier one, all else equal.
Type 1 versus type 2. Type 1 files are underwritten differently and the carrier list narrows. It is not a decline, but it is a smaller market, and going through an agent who knows which carriers write it matters more here than almost anywhere else.
Insulin use. Insulin moves the file. Whether it moves it one step or several depends on the carrier and on everything else in the record. Practitioners report that insulin is no longer an automatic table rating: onset after age 40 with a stable A1c can still reach competitive term pricing, though insulin-dependent type 2 remains harder to place than type 2 managed on oral medication alone, because it signals progression.
Complications. This is where files actually fall apart. Neuropathy, retinopathy, or any sign of kidney involvement changes the picture far more than the A1c does, because they indicate the condition has already done damage. A clean complication history is worth more to your rate class than a slightly better A1c.
Everything unrelated to diabetes. Build, blood pressure, cholesterol, tobacco. Diabetes rarely arrives alone in an underwriting file, and the combination is what gets priced.
Where the rate class usually lands
No carrier publishes its diabetic underwriting bands. The table below is what independent brokers consistently report, not carrier-sourced fact, and it is offered as a guide to structure rather than a promise of outcome.
| Profile | Common outcome | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Type 2, diagnosed after 50, A1c well controlled, no insulin, no complications | Standard, occasionally better | The best-case diabetic file |
| Type 2, controlled, on insulin, no complications | Mild table rating | Carrier-dependent, wide spread |
| Type 2, inconsistent readings, other risk factors present | Table rating, several steps | Where shopping matters most |
| Type 1, well controlled, adult | Table rating, narrower carrier list | Specialist carriers write this |
| Any type with active complications | Rated heavily or declined | Simplified or guaranteed issue territory |
The spread between carriers on the same file is the point of this table. It is routinely several rate classes wide, which on a mid-size policy is a difference of hundreds of dollars a year for identical coverage.
Can you get it without a medical exam?
Often, yes — but read what you're buying.
Accelerated underwriting programs will sometimes take a well-controlled type 2 file. Sometimes they'll accept the application, run the data, see metformin in the prescription record, and move you into full underwriting anyway. That's not a decline; it's a delay, and it's common enough to plan for.
Simplified issue is the more reliable route for a managed diabetic file. Fewer questions, no blood draw, faster decision, and a coverage ceiling low enough that the carrier can afford to be less curious.
Guaranteed issue should be a last resort here, not a first stop. Diabetes on its own — even insulin-dependent diabetes — is not usually enough to push a file into no-questions-asked territory, and the pricing gap between guaranteed issue and a rated simplified issue policy is substantial.
What to do before you apply
Get your current numbers. Your most recent A1c, the date, and ideally the two before it. An underwriter who has to request records from your endocrinologist takes weeks longer and often assumes the worse case in the meantime.
Don't shop by applying. Every application generates an MIB entry, and a string of declines is visible to the next carrier. Find out where your file is likely to land before you submit, not after.
Apply where your profile is welcome. Carrier appetite for diabetic business shifts, and a carrier that wrote your neighbour's policy cheaply two years ago may have repriced since.
And if you're rated, diarise it. Bring your A1c down and keep it down, then ask for a reconsideration with current labs. A rating assigned during a bad stretch is not a life sentence — but nobody removes it unless you ask.