Life Insurance for Diabetics in Canada: What Type 1 and Type 2 Pay

The part most people get wrong is treating this as a yes-or-no question about whether they can get covered. The real question is which carrier and which kind of policy. The same person can get a standard offer at one insurer, a higher-priced offer at another, and a clean no-medical approval at a third. That spread is where the savings live, and it is the whole reason to compare before you apply anywhere.

Where you are likely to land

Quick definitions: fully underwritten means a full health review; no-medical means no exam, just health questions (still underwritten, and your answers are binding); a rating is a percentage added to the standard price.

Below: exactly how carriers rate each diabetes type, what coverage costs in real dollars, and how I route between insurers to land you the best of these paths.

Jump to what applies to you

• Your coverage options with diabetes
• How carriers assess a diabetes application
• Carrier ratings and what coverage really costs
• Type 1 diabetes and life insurance
• Type 2 diabetes and life insurance
• Gestational, juvenile, and prediabetes
• Diabetes coverage over 60
• No-medical options for diabetics
• How to improve your offer
• Already declined? What to do next
• Diabetes life insurance FAQ
• Choosing the right broker

Your Life Insurance Options With Diabetes (and When Each One Wins)

With diabetes, you have three real ways to buy life insurance in Canada: fully underwritten, no-medical, and guaranteed coverage. There are plenty of options out there, and that is the whole advantage of working with a broker who knows which one fits your situation instead of selling you the only product on their shelf.

Here is what each route actually is, and the kind of client I steer toward it.

Most people with diabetes never need Option 3. Where the order really matters is between the first two. When a file is likely to come back rated, our worst case scenario is a no-medical policy, so I put that in place first as the backstop and then go through the full review. If the full review comes back better, we keep it and drop the other one.

I would not do it the other way around. Some no-medical applications ask whether you have ever been declined or rated, so a rated result from a full review can take that option off the table. If you want to see how the carriers stack up against each other before you apply, I break that down in my comparison of the leading diabetes-friendly insurers in Canada.

How Carriers Assess a Diabetes Application (What Actually Moves the Needle)

Insurers want stability more than anything. That is the single biggest thing they are looking at, and it runs through every factor below. A controlled, well-documented case reads very differently from a recent diagnosis still settling down, even when the diagnosis is identical.

Six things shape the offer, and they do not carry equal weight. Picture them as a ladder: the top rungs swing your rate the most, while the bottom ones fine-tune it.

What You Will Need to Have Ready

You do not need to chase down a stack of paperwork before we talk. Most of this comes out naturally in the conversation. Full disclosure is non-negotiable though: leaving something off does not help you, it just risks the claim later.

Carrier Ratings and What Coverage Really Costs (Same Person, Different Answers)

A highly rated policy at one company does not mean there isn’t a more cost-effective one somewhere else. I say that to almost every diabetic client, because the same profile can come back standard at one carrier and rated heavily at another. That is not bad luck. It is how the market actually works, and it is the whole reason to compare before you apply.

First, plain English on one word you will see a lot. A rating is a percentage an insurer adds to the standard price because it sees added risk. A +50% rating means you pay about 50% more than the standard premium, and +100% means roughly double. The rating applies to the insurance cost, not the small flat policy fee, so real totals land a dollar or two under straight multiplication. Insurer guides often write the same thing as a percentage of standard: 150% means +50%, and 200% means +100%.

Summarised from each insurer’s published advisor guidance for well-managed cases, converted to a +% scale. Not offers. Actual ratings depend on your full application and current carrier guidelines, and are subject to change.

Look at the spread on a single row, then look at the ages in the Type 2 column. Nearly every insurer that publishes a standard-rate path for Type 2 ties it to an older applicant, and that is the detail most diabetes articles leave out. Of the roughly 20 companies I work with, there are a couple I lean toward for Type 2 because they are more likely to come back standard, with Foresters and Industrial Alliance usually near the top of my list. I still never assume. I work the list from most cost-effective downward and let the numbers decide, not the brand name.

What Coverage Actually Costs, in Real Dollars

Here is where ratings stop being abstract. Take the standard price, apply the rating, and you get the real monthly cost. Then compare it to a no-medical (simplified issue) policy, which skips the exam and asks fewer diabetes questions. Watch where the two routes meet.

Illustrative monthly premiums, non-smoker, based on current carrier rates. Fully underwritten figures are standard rates adjusted for the rating shown, with the flat policy fee left unrated. No-medical figures are the range across simplified issue products that may accept a diabetes history, available only if you can answer that insurer’s questions as written. Subject to underwriting and change.

Watch the male 45 row. At +50% the rated policy runs about $60; a no-medical policy runs about $61 to $74. Same money. Push the rating to +75% or +100% and no-medical is often the same price or cheaper, faster, and no exam. That crossover is what I am watching for on every file. It moves with age, though: the 35-year-old rows still favour fully underwritten even when rated, while older applicants reach the crossover sooner.

So the coaching is simple. If it ends up being +75%, the no-medical policy is usually cheaper just because of the numbers; at +50% or lower, the full review tends to win. When a rating looks likely, I lock in the no-medical approval first and let the full review try to beat it. A rated offer is not automatically the cheapest answer. For a rough sense of where you would sit first, my guide on what life insurance costs in Canada is a good starting point.

Life Insurance With Type 1 Diabetes (What to Expect)

Type 1 almost always means a rated offer on a fully underwritten policy. Published best cases start around +50% at some insurers and +100% at others, and the real preliminary checks I have run on well-controlled adults came back higher than that.

Control, complications, and how long you have been steady move the number most. And a steep quote at one company does not mean every company will be steep. I have seen the same Type 1 file come back at very different ratings, which is exactly why I never let it ride on a single application.

That is also why I price a no-medical policy alongside the full review from the start. The Assumption Life Platinum Protection application, for example, asks about diabetes only together with complications such as heart attack, stroke, neuropathy or kidney disease. A well-controlled Type 1 applicant with none of those may qualify, subject to the rest of the application.

This page covers the broad picture. For the carrier-by-carrier breakdown and real premium examples specific to Type 1, see my full guide to life insurance with Type 1 diabetes.

Life Insurance With Type 2 Diabetes (Often Better Than People Think)

Well-controlled Type 2 can land standard rates, no different from someone applying without diabetes, and age is the hinge. Most insurers that publish a standard-rate path for Type 2 tie it to applicants in their 50s or older with good control and no complications. Under 50, a modest rating is more common, and the indications I have seen for otherwise healthy younger clients clustered around +50%.

Duration alone does not decide it either. This year a client in his early 60s, Type 2 for 15 years and on blood pressure and cholesterol medication, came back standard at Empire Life on a full review, and standard again on a no-medical application the same quarter. Not every file goes that way. But the internet scares a lot of people away from applying for no good reason.

Type 2 generally rates better than Type 1, because carriers reward control. Four things decide where your offer lands, and you can read each one as a dial that turns the rate up or down:

Get those four dials pointing the right way and standard rates are genuinely on the table, especially from your 50s on. The carrier ratings and the real premium examples earlier on this page show how a controlled Type 2 file tends to land, and where the no-medical route quietly becomes the cheaper play.

Gestational, Juvenile, and Prediabetes

These three sit outside the standard Type 1 and Type 2 path, and each one is treated differently by underwriters. Here is the short version of where each lands.

Gestational diabetes

If it resolved after pregnancy and your follow-up glucose testing came back normal, many carriers treat you as a standard applicant. Some will ask about that follow-up testing to confirm it cleared, and if you are still pregnant, expect more caution until after delivery. It can raise your future Type 2 risk, so honest disclosure and a recent normal reading make this an easy file. I cover the details in my guide to life insurance with gestational diabetes.

Juvenile (childhood Type 1) diabetes

A child with Type 1 is underwritten as Type 1, but more cautiously than an adult. Some insurers will not consider young children at all, and those that do usually start at much higher ratings than for adults, often +200% or more. Coverage may still be available, and it varies a lot by insurer, so this is one to check quietly before applying anywhere.

Prediabetes

Prediabetes is often the best position to apply from, and the most time-sensitive. Many insurers will still offer standard rates or a modest rating, and age matters: some rate younger applicants and offer standard from about 50 on. I have seen a 47-year-old with a prediabetes diagnosis and no medication approved automatically on a full review. I have also seen people wait, tip into Type 2, and pay more as a result. If you are prediabetic, this is the moment to lock something in, not the moment to wait and see.

No-Medical Life Insurance for Diabetics (and the Split-Policy Trick)

No-medical coverage skips the exam and asks a short set of health questions instead, which makes it faster and often friendlier for diabetes than a full review. It is still underwritten, and the answers you give are binding. The trade-offs are real: pricing runs higher than a clean fully underwritten policy, and each carrier caps coverage, usually somewhere between $500,000 and $1,000,000 depending on the product and your age. For a recent diagnosis, a recent medication change, or a file that would otherwise rate heavily, it is frequently the smart route, not the consolation prize.

Here is the part most people never get told. Those per-carrier caps are not a hard ceiling on how much you can own. If you need more than one no-medical policy will issue, I split it. Say you need a million dollars: if one carrier’s $750,000 is cost-effective, I place that and top it up with a second policy, or I split it more evenly across two. It comes down to cost and how much coverage you actually need, not the limit on any single product.

My rule on no-medical is the same as everywhere else: I work the carriers from most cost-effective downward and let the numbers decide. Not all no-medical providers are created equal, and the cheapest one for a 45-year-old is not always the cheapest for a 60-year-old.

How to Improve Your Offer Before You Apply

Two things move your offer before you apply: how long your treatment has been stable, and where your A1C sits. Which one matters more depends on the route. No-medical applications mostly ask about recent changes to your medication, while a full review looks hard at the A1C number itself.

Here is how I break it down for clients:

A client in his early 60s came to me with an A1C of 12. One insurer said that was not insurable for them; another postponed until it was 8 or under for a year. We put a no-medical policy in place as a bridge, and six months later he told me he had his diabetes under control and was approved for $600,000 over 20 years at standard rates on a full review.

And here is the catch most people miss: not all carriers even ask for an A1C, and not all of them ask about medication changes over the same window. That variation is the whole reason a quick conversation before you apply can save you weeks of waiting for a milestone one carrier needs and another does not.

Beyond that, the basics still pay off: full, honest disclosure, recent readings ready if you have them, and addressing anything else on your file. If you want the wider list of levers that move a rate, my guide on how health and lifestyle affect your rates is worth a read before you submit.

Already Declined? Here Is What to Do Next

That is the real advantage of going through a broker who knows the options: a decline becomes a routing problem to solve, not a verdict on whether you can be covered. If your situation is more complicated, my guide to life insurance with a pre-existing condition in Canada walks through how layered health files get placed.

Diabetes Life Insurance FAQ

The questions I get asked most by people with diabetes shopping for coverage.

Choosing the Right Life Insurance Broker for a Diabetic Application

For a diabetic application, the right choice is an independent broker who compares carriers, not an agent tied to one company. Diabetic underwriting shifts from one insurer to the next, and that gap is real money. It can be the difference between a decline and a standard-rate offer. An independent broker routes your file to the carriers most likely to give you a strong offer for your specific profile, instead of leaving you with a single company’s verdict.

The process in this guide, reviewing underwriting guides across the roughly 20 carriers I work with, running anonymous preliminary checks before submitting, and routing to the right product based on your full health picture, is exactly how I work with every diabetic client. It helps reduce unnecessary declines and gives you a clearer path before any formal application goes in.