Summary
An interesting new insurance product has been launched by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The new policy offers cheap premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a reduced risk than their carnivorous counterparts of developing certain illnesses. It remains to be seen whether other insurance organisations will follow the example set by AFI .
A no-profit insurance business has launched an insurance scheme which offers egg eaters and vegetarians a reduced cost life insurance.
The offer, considered to be the first of its type, is being introduced by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The firm is offering veggies a 6% cheaper premiumon life cover premiums
The company claimed that vegetarians ought to pay a lesser cost for the product, which pays out if the plan holder were to die, because they were less likely to suffer from a range of chronic diseases, including cancers.
Sheils Hatline, AFI’s senior director, said that the danger of veggies 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 30%, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay broadly the same premiums as clients who eat meat.
She says that AFI think that this is patently unfair and says the life industry should recognise the fact that being a veggie can make have a significant effect on life expectancy and lower its premiums accordingly.
A standard price plan is also on the market for meat eaters. Both plans are sold by LV=, which prior, was known as Liverpool Victoria.
In common with normal life policies, a range of aspect contribute to the cost of the policies including whether the applicant smokes, their age, weight and sex.
At the moment, Animal Friends Insurance is carrying the 6 per cent lower price itself from the payment it gets from LV=. In the future, however, the business’s aim was to offer lower costs on specialist plans. In making the discount the firm is hoping to sign up enough vegetarians to make it viable for LV= to underwrite another insurance plan that takes the veggie diet into account.
Indeed there are significant savings to be made, a forty two year oldnon-smoker buying £300,000 worth of life insurance cover might potentially save £393.60 over a twenty five year term.
Where critical illness is concerned, AFI thinks that insurance companies should try to treat those that like meat and non-meat eaters in ways that are similar to the way they view those that don’t smoke and those that do. It is to be hoped that other companies in the insurance industry will take the same initiative.
Some managersin the insurance industry are dismissive that there is robust proof that vegetarians live longer, and how any insurer could prove that people who had certified that they were vegetarian did not munch on an occasional bacon sandwich.
When it comes to smoking, the insurance company can refer to your GP’s patient records – if you now don’t smoke it’s likely that your Doctor will know about it. However, this is unlikely to 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 ways and suggested that once a vegetarian has become a veggie, they don’t regress to meat-eating, that is unlike those that smoke who tend to drift in and out of their habit.