Vegetarians Fed Life Insurance Carrot
Summary
An innovative new product has been marketed by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The life insurance policy offers cheap premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a reduced risk than their meat-eating counterparts of developing certain diseases. It remains to be seen whether other insurers will follow AFI’s lead .
A no-profit insurance business has launched a scheme which offers egg eaters and vegetarians a reduced cost life insurance premium .
The deal, considered to be the first of its kind, is being brought to the market by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The firm is offering non-meat eaters a 6 per cent discounton cheap life cover premiums
The company said that vegetarians ought to pay a lesser sum for the insurance cover, which pays out if the customer were to die, because they were more unlikely to suffer from a range of very serious illnesses, including cancers.
Elaine Fair, AFI’s managing director, claims that the danger of vegetarians being diagnosed with certain cancers is reduced by up to 42 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 broadly the same life premiums as plan holders who eat meat.
She says that AFI believe that this is patently unfair and says the life industry should acknowledge the concept that being a veggie can create have a big influence on life expectancy and reduce its monthly charges accordingly.
A normal arrangement is also on the market for meat eaters. Both insurance policies are underwritten by LV=, which prior, was known as Liverpool Victoria.
In common with normal life insurance policies, a range of things contribute to the cost of the monthly premium including whether the applicant smokes, their weight, age and sex.
At the moment, Animal Friends Insurance is carrying the 6 per cent lower price itself from the commission it gets from LV=. In the future, however, the firm’s objective was to offer lower premiums on specialist plans. In making the discount the company is hoping to sign up enough veggies to make it cost effective for LV= to underwrite yet another insurance policy that takes the vegetarian’s diet into account.
Indeed there are huge savings to be made, a forty two year oldnon-smoker buying £300,000 worth of insurance cover might potentially save £393.60 over a twenty year period.
Where critical illness is concerned, AFI considers that insurance companies should begin to treat those that eat meat and those that do not eat meat in ways that are similar to the way they approach those that don’t smoke and those that do. Perhaps other companies in the insurance industry will follow the initiative.
Some peoplein the insurance industry doubt whether there is any proof that vegetarians live longer, and how any insurance company would know that those who had applied stating that they were veggies did not savour the occasional rump steak.
When it comes to smoking, the insurance company can refer to your GP’s patient records – if you now don’t smoke it’s certainly likely that your Doctor will know about it. But this won’t apply when it comes to eating meat, an insurance executive observed.
But some veggies contend 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 do not return to meat-eating, that’s unlike people who smoke who tend to drift in and out of their habit.
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