Life Insurance For Vegetarians

Summary
An innovative new product has been introduced by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The insurance plan offers lower premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a reduced risk than their meat-eating counterparts of developing certain health conditions. It remains to be seen whether other insurance firms will follow AFI’s lead .

A not for profit insurance firm has introducd an insurance scheme which offers vegetarians and fish-eaters a reduced premium cheap critical illness insurance .

The deal, thought to be the 1st of its type, is being marketed by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The company is offering non-meat eaters a 6 per cent discounton mortgage cover premiums
The business said that vegetarians ought to pay a lesser cost for the insurance cover, which pays out if the policyholder dies, because they were less likely to suffer from a list of chronic illnesses, including some cancers.

Sheils Hatline, the managing director of AFI, said that the danger of veggies being diagnosed with certain cancers is shrunk by up to forty two per cent and the possibility of them suffering from heart disease is reduced by up to 30 per cent, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay identical life insurance premiums as policyholders who eat meat.
She says that AFI believe that this is unfair and says the insurers should recognise the idea that being a vegetarian can impose have a big influence on life expectancy and cut its charges accordingly.

A standard policy is also on the market for non-vegetarians. Both policies are underwritten by LV=, which prior, was known as Liverpool Victoria.

In common with normal life policies, a range of factors contribute to the cost of the policies including whether the applicant smokes, their age, sex and weight.

Currently at the moment, AFI is carrying the 6 per cent cheaper premium itself from the payment it earns from from LV=. In the future, however, the firm’s aim was to offer lower costs on specialist insurance plans. In offering the price reduction the company is hoping to sign up enough veggies to make it viable for LV= to underwrite another insurance policy that takes the vegetarian’s diet into account.

Indeed there are big savings to be had, a 38 year oldnon-smoker buying £300,000 worth of insurance cover might potentially save £393.60 over a 25-year period.

Where serious illness insurance is concerned, AFI thinks that insurance companies should begin to treat those that eat meat and people that don’t eat meat in a way that is similar to the way they view smokers and non-smokers. Hopefully others in the insurance industry will do something similar.

It is thought that some executivesin the insurance industry are doubtful whether there is verifyable proof that veggies live longer, and how any insurance company could prove that applicants who had applied stating that they were veggies did not eat the odd spare rib.

When it comes to smoking, the insurance company can refer to your GP’s patient records – if you do smoke it’s likely that your GP will be aware. But this does not apply when it comes to eating meat, an an insurance industry spokesperson observed.

But many veggetarians say that they are not worried about people falling off the vegetarian wagon and suggested that once a veggie has become a veggie, they do not go back to meat-eating, unlike people who smoke who tend to drift out and back again into their old smoking ways.