Summary
An interesting new insurance policy has been marketed by Animal Friends Insurance. The insurance plan offers cheap premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a lesser risk than their carnivore counterparts of developing certain medical conditions. It remains to be seen whether other insurance organisations will follow AFI’s lead .

A none profit insurance firm has introducd an insurance policy which offers egg eaters and vegetarians a reduced premium life insurance cover.

The offer, thought to be the first of its kind, is being marketed by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The organisation is offering veggies a six per cent lower priceon mortgage cover premiums
The organisation claimed that veggies ought to pay a lower amount for the cover, which pays out if the customer dies, because they were less likely to suffer from a selection of serious conditions, including cancers.

Susan Gaddet, A senior director at Animal Friends Insurance, said that the risk of veggies being diagnosed with certain cancers is shrunk by up to 42 per cent and the danger of them suffering from heart disease is reduced by up to 32 per cent, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay identical insurance costs as customers who eat meat.
She says that Animal Friends Insurance believe this is not fair and says the life industry should acknowledge the fact that being a veggie can impose a positive impact on life expectancy and reduce its charges accordingly.

A standard priced plan is also on the market for non-vegetarians. Both insurance plans are brought to the market by LV=, which used to be known as Liverpool Victoria.

In common with normal life plans, a range of things contribute to the cost of the plans including whether the applicant smokes, their sex, weight and age.

At the moment, AFI is making the six per cent price reduction itself from the payment it earns from from LV=. In the future, however, the company’s aim was to offer lower premiums on specialist cover. In making the discount the organisation is hoping to sign up enough vegetarians to make it economically worthwhile for LV= to underwrite another insurance plan that takes the veggie diet into account.

Indeed there are significant savings to be had, a 42-year-oldnon-smoker purchasing £300,000 worth of life insurance might potentially save £393.60 over a twenty five year term.

Where life insurance quotes is concerned, AFI considers that life insurance companies should try to treat those that like meat and non-meat eaters in approaches matching the way they assess those that smoke and those that don’t. We hope that that other companies in the insurance industry will do the same.

Some senior executivesin the insurance industry doubt whether there is any proof that vegetarians live longer, and how any insurance company would know that applicants who had stated that they were vegetarian did not enjoy the occasional Big Mac.

When it comes to smoking, the insurance company can refer to your Doctor’s records – if you do smoke it’s possible that your GP would know. However, this is not the case when it comes to eating meat, an said a spokesperson from the insurance industry.

But some veggies contend that they are not worried about people falling off the veggie ways and suggested that once a veggie has become a vegetarian, they do not regress to meat-eating, that’s unlike those that smoke who tend to drift out and back again into their habit.