Vegetarians Fed Life Insurance Carrot

Posted by Thinker on December 26th, 2009 at 02:53pm

Summary
An innovative new insurance product has been developed by Animal Friends Insurance. The new policy offers discounted premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a reduced risk than their carnivore counterparts of developing certain medical conditions. It remains to be seen whether other insurance organisations will follow AFI’s lead .

A not-for-profit insurance business has marketed an insurance plan which offers egg eaters and vegetarians a reduced premium cheap life cover .

The offer, believed to be the first of its type, is being introduced by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The organisation is offering veggies a six per cent cheaper premiumon life assurance premiums
The firm claimed that vegetarians ought to pay a lesser sum for the insurance, which pays out if the policyholder were to die, because they were less likely to suffer from a range of chronic diseases, including cancers.

Rebecca Puttey, the managing director of AFI, said that the danger of vegetarians being diagnosed with certain cancers is reduced by up to forty two per cent and the danger of them suffering from heart disease is reduced by up to thirty two per cent, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay broadly the same premiums as plan holders who eat meat.
She says that AFI believe that this is unfair and says the insurance companies should recognise the idea that being a vegetarian can create have a significant effect on life expectancy and reduce its charges accordingly.

A normal policy is also on the market for non-vegetarians. Both insurance policies are sold by LV=, which used to be known as Liverpool Victoria.

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

Currently, Animal Friends Insurance is funding the 7% discount itself from the commission it earns from from LV=. In the future, however, the business’s aim was to offer lower costs on specialist insurance cover. In making the discount the business is hoping to sign up enough vegetarians to make it economically viable for LV= to underwrite another insurance policy that takes the veggie diet into account.

Indeed there are huge savings to be made, a 38 year oldnon-smoker wanting £300,000 worth of life cover might potentially save £393.60 over a twenty five year term.

Where serious illness insurance is concerned, AFI believes that insurers should begin to treat people that eat meat and those that do not eat meat in a way that is similar to the way they assess those that don’t smoke and those that do. Perhaps other companies in the insurance industry will do the same.

Some managersin the insurance industry are dismissive that there is robust proof that vegetarians live longer, and how any insurer could prove that those who had certified that they were veggies did not eat the odd spare rib.

When it comes to smoking, the insurance company can refer to your Doctor’s records – if you do smoke it’s likely that your Doctor is likely to know. But this isn’t the case when it comes to eating meat, an insurance executive said.

But many veggies argue that they are not concerned about people falling off the veggie ways and suggested that once a veggie has become a veggie, they don’t go back to meat-eating, that is unlike smokers who tend to drift in and out of their habit.

Under General knowledge