Summary
An interesting new product has been developed by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The new insurance plan offers lower premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a reduced risk than their carnivore counterparts of developing certain illnesses. It remains to be seen whether other insurance firms will follow the policy introduced by AFI .
A no-profit insurance business has marketed an insurance policy which offers egg eaters and vegetarians a reduced cost life insurance premium .
The deal, considered to be the 1st of its type, is being brought to the market by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The organisation is offering non-meat eaters a 7% lower priceon life insurance cover premiums
The organisation said that veggies ought to pay a lesser sum for the insurance, which pays out if the person were to die, because they were more unlikely to suffer from a selection of serious conditions, including some cancers.
Amanda Jude, AFI’s managing director, claims that the risk of vegetarians being diagnosed with certain cancers is reduced by up to 42% and the possibility of them suffering from heart disease is reduced by up to thirty per cent, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay broadly identical life insurance premiums as customers who eat meat.
She says that AFI believe this is unfair and says the life organisations should acknowledge the concept that being a vegetarian can make have a big influence on life expectancy and cut its premiums accordingly.
A standard arrangement is also on the market for non-vegetarians. Both policies are sold by LV=, which was known as Liverpool Victoria.
In common with standard life cover, a range of factors contribute to the cost of the premiums including whether the applicant smokes, their sex, weight and age.
At the moment, Animal Friends Insurance is carrying the 7% discount itself from the money it earns from from LV=. In the future, however, the company’s aim was to offer lower costs on specialist insurance cover. In offering the price reduction the company is hoping to sign up enough veggies to make it worthwhile for LV= to underwrite another plan that takes the vegetarian’s diet into account.
Indeed there are big savings to be had, a thirty eight year oldnon-smoker buying £300,000 worth of life insurance might potentially save £393.60 over a 25-year term.
Where serious illness insurance is concerned, AFI thinks that insurance companies should try to treat those that eat meat and non-meat eaters in a way that is similar to the way they assess those that don’t smoke and those that do. It is to be hoped that other companies in the insurance industry will do something similar.
Some senior executivesin the insurance industry are doubtful whether there is proof that veggies live longer, and how any insurance company would know that those who had certified that they were veggies did not savour the occasional rump steak.
It’s true that when it comes to smoking there are GP records – if you do smoke it’s possible 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 worried about people falling off the vegetarian ways and suggested that once a vegetarian has become a vegetarian, they do not go back to meat-eating, unlike people who smoke who tend to drift out and back again into their old smoking ways.