Summary
An interesting new insurance policy has been developed by Animal Friends Insurance. The new policy offers lower premiums to vegetarians, based on evidence that they are at a reduced risk than their carnivore counterparts of developing certain health conditions. It remains to be seen whether other insurance firms will follow the new policy marketed by Animal Friends Insurance .

A not for profit insurance firm has introducd a scheme which offers vegetarians and fish-eaters a reduced price critical illness .

The offer, believed to be the 1st of its kind, is being marketed by Animal Friends Insurance (AFI). The organisation is offering veggies a 6% lower priceon life assurance premiums
The organisation claimed that vegetarians ought to pay a lower amount for the product, which pays out if the customer were to die, because they were less likely to suffer from a range of chronic diseases, including cancers.

Susan Gaddet, the managing director of AFI, said that the danger of vegetarians being diagnosed with certain cancers is shrunk by up to 42 per cent and the risk of them suffering from heart disease is lowered by up to 32 per cent, but despite this they have, until now, had to pay identical insurance costs as policyholders who eat meat.
She says that Animal Friends Insurance believe that this is unfair and says the life organisations should recognise the fact that being a veggie can make have a big influence on life expectancy and cut its monthly premiums accordingly.

A normal plan is also on the market for non-vegetarians. Both policies are marketed by LV=, which was known as Liverpool Victoria.

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

Currently at the moment, AFI is funding the 6% reduction in price itself from the commission it gets from LV=. In the future, however, the firm’s aim was to offer lower costs on specialist plans. In making the offer the business is hoping to sign up enough veggies to make it worthwhile for LV= to underwrite yet another insurance plan that takes the veggie diet into account.

Indeed there are big savings to be had, a forty two year oldnon-smoker buying £300,000 worth of insurance cover might potentially save £393.60 over a twenty year term.

Where serious illness insurance is concerned, AFI believes that life insurance companies should start to treat meat eaters and people that don’t eat meat in a way that is similar to the way they approach those that smoke and those that don’t. Hopefully others in the insurance industry will do something similar.

Some senior executivesin the insurance industry doubt whether there is any proof that veggies live longer, and how any insurer could prove that applicants who had applied stating that they are vegetarian did not munch on an occasional bacon sandwich.

When it comes to smoking, the insurance company can refer to your GP’s patient records – if you now don’t smoke it’s likely that your Doctor is likely to know. But this isn’t 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 way of eating and suggested that once a vegetarian has become a veggie, they do not return to meat-eating, unlike people who smoke who tend to drift out and back again into their habit.