Summary
An innovative new product has been launched by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The new insurance plan offers lower premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a lower risk than their carnivore counterparts of developing certain health conditions. It remains to be seen whether other insurance organisations will follow the lead set by Animal Friends Insurance .
A none profit insurance firm has marketed an insurance scheme which offers vegetarians and fish-eaters a reduced premium life insurance cover.
The offer, believed to be the first of its kind, is being brought to the market by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The organisation is offering non-meat eaters a 6 per cent lower priceon mortgage cover premiums
The firm claimed that veggies ought to pay a lesser sum for the insurance, which pays out if the client were to die, because they were less likely to suffer from a range of chronic diseases, including some cancers.
Susan Gaddet, AFI’s senior director, claims that the risk of veggies being diagnosed with certain cancers is reduced by up to 42 per cent and the possibility of them suffering from heart disease is cut by up to 32 per cent, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay broadly identical insurance costs as people who eat meat.
She says that Animal Friends Insurance think that this is not fair and says the insurance companies should acknowledge the idea that being a veggie can make a positive impact on life expectancy and lower its monthly charges accordingly.
A standard priced arrangement is also on the market for meat eaters. Both insurance plans are underwritten by LV=, which was previously known as Liverpool Victoria.
In common with standard life cover, 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 making the seven per cent discount itself from the payment it receives from LV=. In the future, however, the firm’s objective was to offer lower premiums on specialist plans. In making the discount the organisation is hoping to sign up enough veggies to make it viable for LV= to underwrite another policy that takes the vegetarian’s diet into account.
Indeed there are significant savings to be had, a 42-year-oldnon-smoker purchasing £300,000 worth of life insurance cover might potentially save £393.60 over a twenty five year term.
Where cheap life cover is concerned, AFI believes that insurers should begin to treat people 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. We hope that that other companies in the insurance industry will do something similar.
Some peoplein the insurance industry do not believe there is proof that vegetarians live longer, and how any insurer would know that those who had applied stating that they are veggies did not eat the odd spare rib.
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 would be aware. But this does not apply when it comes to eating meat, an said a spokesperson from the insurance industry.
But many veggies argue 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 don’t regress to meat-eating, that’s unlike those that smoke who tend to drift in and out of their habit.
