Vegetarians Fed Life Insurance Carrot
Summary
An innovative new insurance plan has been marketed by Animal Friends Insurance. The new insurance plan offers cheap premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a lower risk than their carnivore counterparts of developing certain illnesses. It remains to be seen whether other insurance organisations will follow the policy introduced by AFI .
A none profit insurance firm has marketed an insurance scheme which offers vegetarians and egg eaters a reduced price life insurance cover.
The offer, believed to be the 1st of its kind, is being brought to the market by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The organisation is offering non-meat eaters a six per cent reduction in priceon mortgage cover premiums
The company claimed that veggies ought to pay less for the insurance cover, which pays out if the person were to die, because they were less likely to suffer from a list of chronic illnesses, including cancers.
Amanda Jude, AFI’s senior director, claims that the risk of vegetarians being diagnosed with certain cancers is shrunk by up to forty two per cent and the risk of them suffering from heart disease is reduced by up to 30%, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay the same life insurance premiums as policyholders who eat meat.
She says that AFI believe this is patently unfair and says the insurance companies should acknowledge the idea that being a vegetarian can impose a positive impact on life expectancy and lower its monthly charges accordingly.
A full-price arrangement is also on the market for meat eaters. Both policies are brought to the market by LV=, which used to be known as Liverpool Victoria.
In common with normal life insurance policies, a range of factors contribute to the cost of the plans 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 gets from LV=. In the future, however, the firm’s objective was to offer lower premiums on specialist policies. In making the offer the firm is hoping to sign up enough veggies to make it economically viable for LV= to underwrite another insurance policy that takes the vegetarian’s diet into account.
Indeed there are huge savings to be made, a 40-year-oldnon-smoker wanting £300,000 worth of cover might potentially save £393.60 over a 20-year period.
Where critical illness insurance is concerned, AFI believes that life insurance companies should begin to treat meat eaters and those that do not eat meat in approaches matching the way they view non-smokers and smokers. It is to be hoped that other companies in the insurance industry will do something similar.
Some senior executivesin the insurance industry doubt whether there is any proof that vegetarians live longer, and how any insurer could prove that people who had applied stating that they were vegetarian did not eat the odd spare rib.
When it comes to smoking, it’s true that there are your Doctor’s records - if you do smoke it’s probable that your Doctor will know. But this won’t apply when it comes to eating meat, an an insurance industry spokesperson observed.
But many veggies argue that they are not worried about people falling off the veggie ways and suggested that once a vegetarian has become a veggie, they don’t go back to meat-eating, that’s unlike people who smoke who tend to drift in and out of their habit.
