Vegetarians Given Life Insurance Incentive
Summary
An interesting new insurance product has been introduced by Animal Friends Insurance. The new policy offers cheap premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a lesser risk than their carnivorous counterparts of developing certain medical conditions. It remains to be seen whether other insurers will follow the example set by AFI .
A not for profit insurance firm has launched a scheme which offers vegetarians and egg eaters a reduced premium life cover .
The deal, thought to be the first of its kind, is being marketed by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The business is offering non-meat eaters a 6% reduction in priceon life assurance premiums
The firm claimed that veggies ought to pay a lesser sum for the cover, which pays out if the plan holder were to die, because they were less likely to suffer from a list of critical illnesses, including some cancers.
Susan Gaddet, A senior director at Animal Friends Insurance, claims that the risk of vegetarians being diagnosed with certain cancers is reduced by up to 40% and the possibility of them suffering from heart disease is cut by up to 32 per cent, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay identical life insurance premiums as customers who eat meat.
She says that AFI believe that this is patently unfair and says the insurers should recognise the concept that being a vegetarian can create a very positive impact on life expectancy and reduce its charges accordingly.
A normal arrangement is also on the market for meat eaters. Both plans are brought to the market by LV=, which was known as Liverpool Victoria.
In common with standard life plans, a range of aspect contribute to the cost of the monthly premium including whether the applicant smokes, their sex, weight and age.
At the moment, AFI is carrying the seven per cent reduction in price itself from the money it gets from LV=. In the future, however, the company’s aim was to offer lower premiums on specialist insurance cover. In ,offering the discount the organisation is hoping to sign up enough vegetarians to make it economically worthwhile for LV= to underwrite another insurance policy that takes the vegetarian’s diet into account.
Indeed there are welcome savings to be made, a forty two year oldnon-smoker wanting £300,000 worth of cover might potentially save £393.60 over a twenty year term.
Where life insurance deals is concerned, AFI considers that insurers should try to treat people 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. We hope that that other companies in the insurance industry will do the same.
It is thought that some executivesin the insurance industry doubt whether there is robust proof that veggies live longer, and how any insurer would know that people who had applied stating that they were vegetarian did not enjoy the occasional Big Mac.
When it comes to smoking, the insurance company can refer to your GP’s patient records - if you do smoke it’s certainly likely that your GP will know about it. But this won’t apply when it comes to eating meat, an insurance executive observed.
But many veggies argue that they are not concerned about people falling off the veggie way of eating and suggested that once a veggie has become a veggie, they don’t return to meat-eating, unlike people who smoke who tend to drift in and out of their habit.