Diabetes and insurance cover: type 1, type 2 and underwriting

Living with diabetes, UK

Almost 6 million[7]

Diagnoses that are type 2

Around 90%[7]

Estimated NHS cost of diabetes

£10.7 billion[7]

Clinical information

NHS[8]

What the cover actually does

People usually arrive at diabetes with one of four products in mind, and they do genuinely different jobs. Private medical insurance pays for the diagnosis and treatment of new, acute conditionsAcute conditionA condition that starts suddenly and is expected to respond to treatment and resolve. privately, within a defined hospital list and subject to an excessExcessThe amount you pay towards a claim before the insurer pays anything.. Critical illness cover pays a single lump sum when a diagnosis meets a written definition in the contract. Income protection replaces part of your monthly income while you cannot work. Life insurance pays other people after you die. None of them is a general-purpose promise about a condition: each pays in specific, written circumstances, and the circumstances are set out in the policy wordingPolicy wordingThe full contract document that decides what is and is not covered. the insurer must give you before you buy. [2]Financial Conduct AuthorityAccessed 15 September 2026

That distinction matters most where a condition is long-term. Medical insurance is designed around problems that start after cover begins and respond to a course of treatment; the ongoing management of a chronic conditionChronic conditionA long-term condition needing ongoing management rather than a course of treatment that ends. generally sits outside it, however serious the condition is. A protection policy has no such boundary once it is in force: if the definition is met, it pays, and it goes on paying regardless of how long the condition lasts. The practical implication for anyone thinking about diabetes is that the right question is never "does insurance cover this?" but "which of these four contracts pays, in what circumstances, and what did my own application produce?"

How insurers underwrite this history

Life insurance with diabetes is widely available, usually with a loading whose size depends on type, duration, control and complications. Critical illness cover is often available too, though some insurers apply exclusions for conditions they regard as diabetes-related, and terms for type 1 are generally firmer than for type 2. Income protection assessment turns on control, complications and occupation; an exclusion for diabetes-related incapacity is one common outcome. Private medical insurance treats diabetes as a chronic condition: routine monitoring, medication and long-term management sit outside the policy under almost every wording, although the investigation of a new, unrelated acute problem is unaffected. Gestational diabetes is usually handled separately and may be treated as resolved after pregnancy, subject to the insurer’s own questions. Because insurer thresholds are not published in any accessible consolidated form, we quote no loadings.

Two mechanics are worth understanding before you apply anywhere. On private medical insurance, moratorium underwritingMoratorium underwritingUnderwriting that automatically excludes recent medical history for a set period, usually five years. asks no medical questions at the start and instead sets aside anything you have had symptoms of, advice about or treatment for in a defined recent period — typically clearing after a continuous symptom-free spell — while full medical underwritingFull medical underwritingUnderwriting where you declare your medical history and the insurer decides cover up front. asks the questions upfront and gives you the exclusions in writing before you commit. Switching insurer may allow continued personal medical exclusionsContinued personal medical exclusionsSwitching insurer while carrying your existing exclusions across, rather than being underwritten afresh., which carries your existing terms across rather than restarting them. On life, critical illness and income protection the assessment happens once: the underwriter may ask for a GP report, and the outcome is written into the policy. Once accepted, later changes in your health do not alter the terms, which is precisely why the application is worth taking seriously.

What an underwriter is actually measuring

Almost 6 million people in the UK are living with diabetes according to Diabetes UK — over 4.7 million with a diagnosis and an estimated 1.3 million more who have type 2 but have not yet been diagnosed. Around 90 per cent of diagnoses are type 2 and around 8 per cent type 1. For insurance purposes the type matters, but so does everything around it. Underwriters assess how long you have had the condition, what your recent control has looked like as recorded in your notes, what treatment is required, whether your weight and blood pressure are recorded as stable, whether you smoke, and above all whether any complications have been recorded. Complications are the biggest single driver: diabetes without them is a manageable underwriting question, while recorded eye, kidney, nerve or cardiovascular complications change the assessment substantially. Diabetes UK also reports that the total cost of diabetes to the UK NHS is an estimated £10.7 billion, with around 60 per cent of that spent on complications — which is exactly the pattern underwriters are pricing against.

Ask your practice for your recent recorded control measurements and any complication screening results before you apply; precise, recent figures generally produce better terms than vague answers. Whatever the specifics, the discipline is the same: get the terms in writing before you buy, keep the documents where you can find them, and re-read the exclusions before you book anything privately or open a claim.

Your disclosure rights

The Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 replaced the old duty to volunteer everything with a duty to take reasonable care not to misrepresent when you answer the insurer’s questions. The same Act sets out what an insurer can do if an answer was wrong. If the mistake was careless, the insurer must respond in proportion: where it would have offered cover on different terms it applies those terms, and where it would have charged more it can reduce the claim by the same proportion. Only a deliberate or reckless misrepresentation allows it to cancel the policy and refuse the claim. [5]UK Parliament (legislation.gov.uk)Enacted 8 March 2012

Alongside the statutes, the FCA’s conduct rules require insurers to handle claims promptly and fairly and not to reject them unreasonably, and to give you the product information and insurance product information documentInsurance product information documentA short standardised summary of what a policy covers and excludes. before you buy. [2]Financial Conduct AuthorityAccessed 15 September 2026 The Consumer Duty obliges firms to deliver good outcomes for retail customers, including communications you can actually understand. [3]Financial Conduct AuthorityAccessed 15 September 2026 Check that any insurer or broker is authorised on the Financial Services Register before you deal with them. [1]Financial Conduct AuthorityContinuously updated; accessed 15 September 2026

What moves the price

Three groups of factors set what you pay. The first is you: age above all, then smoking status, height and weight, occupation on protection policies, and your medical history. The second is the contract: the sum assured or benefit level, the term, the excessExcessThe amount you pay towards a claim before the insurer pays anything. or deferred periodDeferred periodThe waiting time between stopping work and the first income protection payment., the hospital list on a medical policy, and any optional extras such as outpatient cover. The third is how the condition itself is treated — whether it produces a loading, an exclusion or no change at all. Because underwriting outcomes vary so much between insurers and between individuals, we publish no market-wide figures for loadings.

What is verifiable is the scale of what insurers pay out. Protection insurers reported £7.84 billion of claims in 2025, £5.15 billion of it on individual policies, across 258,000 new claims. [10]Association of British Insurers and GRiD, reported by Cover MagazineAccessed 15 September 2026 That is the counterweight to the price conversation: cover that is never claimed on looks expensive in hindsight, and cover that is claimed on rarely does. The other lever most people underuse is design — a higher excess, a shorter benefit period, a smaller hospital list or a guided consultant option can change a medical insurance premium substantially without changing what happens at claim stage for the things you were actually worried about.

How to compare two quotes

• Fix the cover first: outpatient limit, excess, hospital list and underwriting type.
• Ask for each quote in writing, with its date.
• Put the quotes side by side and mark every difference in cover before you look at price.
• Ask what happens to the price at renewal and after a claim.

1. 1

   Step 1: Write down your history accurately

   Dates, investigations, medication and consultations — from your records, not memory.

2. 2

   Step 2: Decide which product answers your worry

   Treatment access, a lump sum, a monthly income or money for others after death.

3. 3

   Step 3: Apply through an adviser who can approach several insurers

   One formal decline is harder to undo than several informal enquiries.

4. 4

   Step 4: Read the exclusions before you accept

   A written exclusion you understand is better than an assumption you do not.

5. 5

   Step 5: Pre-authorise before any private treatment

   Ask the insurer to confirm cover, hospital and consultant fees in writing first.

6. 6

   Step 6: Review after any change in health or cover

   New diagnoses, new medication and switching insurer all change the picture.

If something goes wrong

If a claim is declined or an application produces terms you think are wrong, complain to the firm in writing and ask two precise questions: which clause the decision rests on, and exactly which evidence failed it. The firm must investigate and issue a final response. If that does not settle it, the Financial Ombudsman Service can decide the complaint free of charge, and it publishes both its annual complaints data and its individual decisions. [4]Financial Ombudsman Service2 July 2025 Keep every document: the application you submitted, the terms you were offered, the pre-authorisation, and the correspondence. Complaints about medical history almost always turn on what was asked and what was answered, which is a paper question, not a memory one. For the wider picture, read who regulates insurance in the UK.

Written by

Tumaris Rahimova

Head of Operations, PremierPMI

• Head of Operations
• Insurer relationship and service standards

Tumaris runs operations at PremierPMI, making sure every enquiry reaches the right specialist quickly and without a call centre in between. She owns the service standards the advisory team works to, and the day-to-day relationships with insurers that keep quotes, claims and renewals moving.

Read full profile

Reviewed by

Stuart Hendy

PMI Expert and Head of Publishing, PremierPMI

• 20 years in UK private medical insurance
• Underwriting and corporate placement specialist

Stuart brings over 20 years of experience advising on UK private medical insurance. He is a key member of the private medical insurance team and Head of the Publishing Team, gathering detailed client requirements, liaising with insurers on tailored quotes, and running training on insurer product changes and underwriting nuance.

Read full profile