Why Trust Us
Every Investopedia review of financial product providers starts with a rigorous research process and objective data analysis by Investopedia staff. We created this list of the best life insurance companies for diabetics after collecting 71 data points related to criteria from 32 companies that cover diabetics and meet our minimum standards for inclusion. The criteria helped us evaluate each company’s underwriting for diabetics, coverage options, diabetes management programs, financial stability, and other features to help you choose the best provider for you.
Investopedia has been a trustworthy source of financial information since 1999 and has been reviewing life insurance companies since 2020.
How Does Life Insurance for Diabetics Work?
Having diabetes doesn’t mean you can’t buy life insurance. Yet the type of life insurance you can qualify for, the coverage amount, and the premiums you pay are typically determined by factors like your health status, your age, and whether you have any other pre-existing conditions.
By insuring individuals with diabetes, companies face a greater risk of paying out a death benefit, as people with the disease may have shortened life expectancies. Therefore, insurance companies may charge higher premiums to people with diabetes because of this additional risk.
Types of Diabetes and Risk Classes
Whether you qualify for life insurance and at what cost depends on the type of diabetes you have and your overall risk level as an applicant.
Type 1: People with type 1 diabetes may be considered higher risk, as people with type 1 diabetes do not produce (or produce very little) insulin and must take insulin regularly to treat their condition. Diet and exercise alone are not enough to treat the condition, creating an ongoing risk for insurers and leading to more expensive rates for people with Type 1 diabetes.
Type 2: In contrast, people with type 2 diabetes may be able to treat their condition without medication—they may be able to manage it with lifestyle changes like exercise and diet. Type 2 diabetes is much more common than type 1 diabetes, and if an individual manages their type 2 diabetes well, they could qualify for lower premiums, as insurance companies may perceive these individuals as lower risk.
Gestational diabetes: Some women may get gestational diabetes, which occurs during pregnancy. This type of diabetes is typically temporary, lasting only during pregnancy. If you currently have gestational diabetes and want to qualify for better premiums, you may consider waiting until after you’ve given birth to apply for insurance.
Risk classes: Generally, insurance providers will group individuals into different risk classes. While people with diabetes may not be in the lowest risk classes—like preferred plus or preferred—they aren’t necessarily always placed in the highest risk categories either. For example, those who don’t depend on insulin, are young, and are non-smokers could be placed in the standard plus or preferred categories, depending on the insurance provider. Being in these risk classes could mean being eligible for more affordable premiums.
Application Process for Diabetics
During the application process, insurance companies ask applicants to fill out a questionnaire and complete a medical exam to get a picture of their health. The insurer may require information about when you were diagnosed and how you manage your condition. During a medical exam, height, weight, blood pressure, and other vitals are measured. Blood and urine samples are taken, too.
However, if you’re not the healthiest or don’t want to go through the effort of completing a medical exam, there are still life insurance policies you can qualify for. There are no-medical-exam insurance policies that have less extensive underwriting processes, so you generally won’t have to complete a medical exam.
Yet these policies are typically more expensive and offer less coverage than fully underwritten policies because insurance providers have less information and insight into your health status.
Types of Life Insurance For Diabetics
Term Life Insurance
Term life insurance is a type of life insurance that offers coverage for a fixed period of time, typically between 10 and 30 years. If a policyholder dies while they have coverage, a death benefit will be paid out to their beneficiaries, who are the people they’ve designated to receive money.
However, if a person outlives their term life policy, their beneficiaries will not receive a death benefit. Term life insurance is typically much more affordable than permanent life insurance, but since it offers temporary coverage, most policyholders end up outliving their policies.
Permanent Life Insurance
Permanent life insurance provides lifelong coverage and includes cash value, a cash savings component that policyholders can withdraw and borrow from while alive. With permanent life insurance, a policyholder’s beneficiaries are guaranteed to receive the death benefit as long as the policyholder has kept up with their premiums. Because of this, permanent life insurance tends to be much more expensive than term life insurance.
There are many different kinds of permanent life insurance, but some common types include whole life insurance and universal life insurance.
With whole life insurance, premiums are generally fixed, and the cash value earns a steady rate. In contrast, with universal life, policyholders can pay variable premiums, adjust their death benefit, and earn a variable interest rate on cash value.
No-Medical-Exam Life Insurance
There are life insurance policies that diabetics can qualify for—like guaranteed issue, simplified issue, or accelerated issue life insurance—that don’t require applicants to go through the full underwriting process. No-medical-exam insurance may be easier to qualify for, but some are more expensive and may offer less coverage.
Generally, these policies won’t offer more than $500,000 worth of coverage for a term life insurance policy and $50,000 for a whole life policy for someone with diabetes.
Guaranteed Issue Life Insurance
If you want guaranteed coverage and don’t think you’ll qualify for the other types of insurance as a diabetic, you might consider opting for guaranteed issue life insurance.
With guaranteed issue life insurance, there’s no medical exam or questionnaire, and you can’t be denied coverage because of a health issue. In exchange, these policies are the most expensive type of coverage, even compared to other no-medical exam options. Guaranteed issue life insurance policies usually offer smaller death benefits, too, typically between $2,000 and $25,000 maximum.
And guaranteed issue life insurance has a graded death benefit, which means that there’s a waiting period of two to three years. If a policyholder dies during that period, their beneficiaries won’t receive the death benefit. Instead, the insurance company will pay the beneficiaries back the premiums along with interest. But if a policyholder dies after the waiting period is over, their beneficiaries will receive the full death benefit.
Guaranteed issue life insurance is typically only available as a whole life policy. You may also hear these policies described as final expense insurance, which is a version of guaranteed issue life specifically designed to help people cover funerals or burials. However, your beneficiaries can use the money any way they want.
Simplified Issue Life Insurance
Simplified issue life insurance requires applicants to fill out a questionnaire regarding their health and lifestyle. These plans don’t guarantee approval, and some applicants who are considered high-risk or who have preexisting conditions may be denied, so it may be a better option for diabetics who are otherwise very healthy. You can find simplified issue term and permanent life insurance policies.
As a diabetic, you may qualify for simplified issue life insurance if the condition is being managed well and you are otherwise in excellent health. The application process is quick and usually handled online or over the phone. If you fail to qualify, the insurer could ask you to try again for a policy that requires a medical exam for underwriting.
Accelerated Issue Life Insurance
Accelerated issue life insurance typically offers the greatest amount of possible coverage of all the no-medical exam policy options. That’s because the insurer still closely examines your risk as an applicant, even if you don’t take a medical exam.
With this type of insurance, applicants may be required to fill out a questionnaire, but the insurance company also evaluates data like driving records and prescription history. This underwriting process relies on data analytics, but some individuals may still need to complete a medical exam if the insurer doesn’t have enough information.
There are both term and permanent life insurance policies that use accelerated issue underwriting. Be warned: As a diabetic, it can be very difficult to qualify for accelerated underwriting. Your insurance agent will let you know if it’s a possibility when you apply.
How We Chose the Best Life Insurance for Diabetics
In creating this list of the best providers of life insurance for people living with diabetes, Investopedia editors and researchers first considered which companies even to consider. We surveyed hundreds of recent life insurance buyers to determine what was important to them. We also consulted market share intelligence and other indicators of company relevance, ruling out providers that didn’t meet Investopedia standards for online transparency, financial strength, and customer complaint ratings. That gave us a list of 45 companies. Among those, 32 indicated they offer life insurance to people with diabetes.
Investopedia researchers collected dozens of data points related to 71 criteria between May 20 and July 3, 2024, and Jan. 14 and Jan. 21, 2025. We unearthed the data from company websites, media representatives, rating agencies (AM Best, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), and J.D. Power), and customer service calls.
Staff editors and research analysts then created a quantitative model that scored each company based on five major categories. We weighted the categories as follows:
- Coverage: 42%
- Policy Features and Riders: 16%
- Diabetes Best-Case Underwriting: 15%
- Diabetes Management Tools: 11%
- Customer Satisfaction: 10%
- Financial Stability: 6%
For more information, read our full methodology explanation.
