Types of insurance
- Property and casualty insurance covers goods, such as your car, house and business, civil and commercial liability, etc.
- Group insurance is offered by an employer to its employees, or by a professional association to its members. Depending on the contract, group insurance may offer life and disability insurance, coverage for medical care, eye and dental care, critical illness insurance, travel insurance, etc.
- Individual insurance is a contract between a person (the insured) and an insurance company (the insurer) that covers specific risks, such as death, disability, critical illness, medical expenses, accidents or illness during out-of-province travel, etc.
Individual insurance
Most people with diabetes have concerns primarily about individual life insurance. An individual insurance contract between an insured and an insurance company is unilateral. That means that once the contract is signed, only the insured person can make changes to it. The insurance company, however, has the right to screen its clients based on its assessment of risk.
The fact that certain individuals are diabetic does not necessarily mean that they will be refused individual insurance. An insurer may accept them with standard conditions, or demand higher premiums based on the risk they represent as assessed by the company’s specialists Diabetes alone is not necessarily a cause for refusal. The addition of other factors, such as being overweight, having high blood pressure, high cholesterol or heart disease, however, may be a cause of refusal.
Some insurance contracts allow a flexible selection of coverages, and cover people who would be difficult to insure with a standard contract. These products are more expensive, but the qualifying questionnaire is less selective. None of these contracts is designed exclusively for people with diabetes but rather for people who are risky to insure for a variety of reasons.
In summary, if you are looking for life insurance, disability or critical illness insurance, no product exists specifically for diabetics. It is therefore essential to work with an agent certified and accredited with the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers). Such an agent will analyze your needs and ask you the necessary questions to find, if possible, the right product for you based on the overall state of your health.
Research and text: Diabetes Québec team of health care professionals
May 2017
Adapted from: (Winter 2015-2016), “Une assurance pour les personnes diabétiques?” Plein Soleil, Diabète Québec, p. 30.
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