my name is kc and i am new to the community but am not new to diabetes. i am a 35 year old dude with type 1 diabetes. i’ve had type 1 diabetes since i was 3 years old. sadly i had a heart attack at 31 due to complications from t1d and have since been diagnosed with heart disease.
i met the love of my life just before i had my heart attack and we got married in september of last year. we are now preparing for the birth of our first child in december and couldn’t be more excited! with all of this i started looking into more substantial life insurance for myself…that is why i’m here.
i don’t know where to look and have been denied two times already. my google searches for things like high risk life insurance haven’t provided me with anything i can use.
does anyone know of any health insurance companies that might consider me? if not, any advice? i NEED to leave something for my family if something happens to me.
I know what you mean. In the past I’ve always had life insurance through my employer. I haven’t worked in a while as I was casting for my mom, and didn’t continue my plan out of pocket so I’m in the same boat. I’ve looked at Colonial Penn and in theory could get coverage, but benefits are limited for the first two years. Not that I’m planning on going anywhere but I’m trying to find a plan that will pay if anything should happen before then.
Congratulations on your marriage and your pending bundle of joy. If I find anything I’ll let you know. Hopefully someone on the forum knows of something
right on…thanks for responding. i get limited coverage through my employment (1 years pay) but we don’t know if my wife will go back to work once our child is born. if she doesn’t, 1 years pay won’t be enough to support our family. heck even if she does i’d like to try to take care of her. i’m still searching so will let you know if i hear of anything that might help you! appreciate the warmth very much!
One other thing I would suggest (sorry, ideas come to me in bid and pieces). I’m not a lawyer but sharing this from personal experience: see a lawyer about estate planning as a preemptive measure. Hopefully you won’t need it until way down the road but it’s good to have this in place. My mom added me to her bank accounts when she was in her mid 80s. There was a CD I was not on, nor was I on the deed to the house. Turns out in her case due to the combined value of those items they were subject to estate taxes if I had been named on either one of them they would not) and bring about $20k over had some big tax implications. Details vary by state so meet with a financial advisor or estate planning attorney who can keep you on track.
This is a bit off topic and it really applies to everyone, not just us with diabetes - but since you’re getting things set up for your family I thought I would mention it.
At age 31 (T1 27 yrs) I was turned down for group term insurance for diabetics bc I was diagnosed before age 5. Even our insurance broker couldn’t find any company to write a life insurance policy. Only insurance I had was 10K burial, policy group term through employers.
I could have chosen to do nothing or look at what I could do. My wife & I began putting money in bank account dedicated to withdrawal at time of my demise. Believe me it was little by little! We were already just scraping by but we saw no alternative. Sometimes $5 per pay period sometimes $10 & at times less than $5. When we had saved enough we purchased shares in mutual funds with good track records, never speculative. My wife was professional so we needed enough in this dedicated fund to hold her & kids over until she could find full time work. By time kids were out of college this dedicated money was substantial. I never expected to see them graduate nor did I expect to live tihis long, 69 yrs, 64.5 T1.
Every T1 lives with different circumstances. I don’t know yours. I offer my example for whatever it might be worth to you. Good luck.
Hi @growandgrow. I just picked up my mail and in it were the - count em three - packages from life insurance companies:
AAA says I’m eligible although I was turned down before;
no medical exams or health questions;
Federal Life Insurance has a hospital cash plan (OK, but exactly life insurance) offering me $$ each day I’m in hospital - no denial due to health or age, and no medical exams, blood tests or beauty questions; and
United of Omaha is preying me the chance to increase my existing policy - guaranteed acceptance, no exams or questions.
I’m just sharing this in case you would like to reach out to any of these. I just looked at the cover sheet and haven’t read the fine print (or prices) yet but wanted to share. So your due diligence and don’t rush into anything but maybe there’s something that will work for you.
Unfortunately I dealt with very similar issues as you. I was an early adult diagnosis, but after marriage and the birth of my daughter I attempted to find a life insurance policy as well. My insurance agent did manage to find 2 at the time but they were absolutely cost prohibitive. I also have adopted the self insurance program previously mentioned. We save a sum of money from every pay and deposit it into a separate account. I hope you do find something that works for you and your family, and remember that self care is just about the best policy you will find.