There is no single price for life insurance with diabetes. As one example, our Type 2 clients aged 50-59 with no complications disclosed typically paid £56.85 a month per £100,000 of level cover across the insurers we place with. Our Type 1 clients aged 40-49 with no complications disclosed typically paid £28.06. Your own quote depends on your circumstances.
Our figures come from our own clients’ applications and are correct as at 11 September 2026.
What do these diabetes life insurance prices cover?
These are prices for people with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes buying life insurance, which normally pays out if you die during the policy. The first examples cover people with no complications disclosed. Prices for background retinopathy, and for retinopathy treated with laser or injections, come further down.
We have analysed over 1,100 applications and final terms. Terms are the price and conditions an insurer offers once it has looked at your health. The amounts here are what clients typically paid, not an advertised starting price. For example, Type 1 clients aged 30-39 with no complications disclosed typically paid £12.03 a month per £100,000 of decreasing cover across the insurers we place with. The latest of those terms was in July 2026.
Use the examples to get a sense of cost, not to pick an insurer on price alone. They describe different people and different policies, and they are not personal quotes.
Speak to a specialist
Not sure where you’d stand?
Tell us about your diabetes and we’ll check the insurers for you.
How much does decreasing life insurance cost with diabetes?
Decreasing cover is usually the cheaper of the two kinds of life insurance, because the amount insured falls over time. What you pay depends on your age, your health and how long the policy runs.
You choose the starting amount and how many years the policy lasts. The insurer sets the monthly price from your age and health. The table shows what three groups of our clients typically paid a month per £100,000 of starting cover, across the policy lengths they chose, typically 16 to 25 years. A longer policy costs more.
| Insurer | Who it is for | A month per £100,000 |
|---|---|---|
| All insurers we place with | Type 1, aged 40-49, no complications disclosed | £17.35 |
| All insurers we place with | Type 1, aged 50-59, no complications disclosed | £27.10 |
| All insurers we place with | Type 2, aged 50-59, no complications disclosed | £27.72 |
The pattern is age: the price rose with each age band, and at 50-59 the two types paid much the same. People often use decreasing cover to clear a repayment mortgage if they die, so the falling insured amount needs to match the debt you want covered. It is a different choice from leaving your family a fixed lump sum.
Those are what our clients paid. Want your own price?
We check the insurers for your age, diabetes type and health, and explain what we find.
How much does level life insurance cost with diabetes?
Level cover keeps the insured amount the same for the whole policy, so it usually costs more than decreasing cover for the same person. People buy it to leave money for family bills, or to replace lost earnings.
You choose the amount and the number of years, and the insurer prices the policy from your age and health. The table shows what three groups of our clients typically paid a month per £100,000, across the policy lengths they took, typically 16 to 25 years. A longer policy costs more.
| Insurer | Who it is for | A month per £100,000 |
|---|---|---|
| All insurers we place with | Type 1, aged 40-49, no complications disclosed | £28.06 |
| All insurers we place with | Type 2, aged 50-59, no complications disclosed | £56.85 |
| All insurers we place with | Type 2, aged 60+, no complications disclosed | £134.73 |
The biggest step is age: the price climbs through the fifties and again after 60. These figures are for people taking out cover at those ages, and the monthly price on a policy you already hold does not jump on your birthday. They are examples of what clients paid, not a ranking of insurers. For more on choosing between insurers on price, read our page on which insurer is cheapest for level life insurance with Type 2 diabetes.
Does diabetes increase life insurance premiums?
Yes. The insurer decisions we have recorded include extra charges for diabetes. Insurers call an extra amount added because of your health a “rating”.
A rating is a percentage added to the insurer’s starting price, not a set amount in pounds. So compare the final monthly price for the same cover and the same number of years, rather than choosing an insurer on the percentage alone.
Checking your health and your application is called underwriting. A price you see before that check is finished is not your final offer.
Does my HbA1c change the price of life insurance?
How much your HbA1c changes the price depends on the insurer. In our analysis, some move the price a lot with the reading, and others hardly move it at all.
Most insurers band your reading. One band might run from 44 to 54 mmol/mol, the next from 55 to 64, and so on. Your reading may move a little by the time you apply, and that worries a lot of people. If it stays inside the same band, the price does not change on account of your HbA1c.
Insurers look at your reading alongside your age and the rest of your health, so a lower reading does not come with a set discount. Read more about your HbA1c reading and life insurance.
Does diabetic retinopathy change the price of life insurance?
It can. For example, at The Exeter, Type 1 clients of any age with background retinopathy (eye changes that have not needed treatment) typically had a diabetes-related rating of +175%. The latest of those terms was in August 2026.
For Type 1 clients of any age with retinopathy treated with laser or injections, The Exeter’s figure was +275%. The latest of those terms was in May 2026. Both figures are the diabetes part of the charge for those client groups. They are not fixed surcharges for eye treatment, and they may not be the full health-related charge.
Specialist help
Living with diabetes complications?
Insurers take very different views of complications. We know which ones to try first, and we’ll check them for you.
How can I get a personal life insurance price?
Talk to More Than Diabetes about the cover you want and about your diabetes. We are a specialist broker, not an insurer. We research the insurers available to us, compare realistic options and explain the prices we find.
To help us find a personal price, have these details ready if you can:
- Whether you use insulin.
- When you were diagnosed.
- Your most recent HbA1c result and when it was taken.
- The date of your last diabetes review.
- Any diabetes-related problems you have been told about, such as changes in your eyes or tingling or numbness in your hands or feet.
- Any diabetes-related hospital stays.
Can I discuss prices if I do not know all those details?
Yes. Tell us what you know, and mention any other health conditions you have been diagnosed with. We can talk through what the cover is for and compare realistic price options. The insurer sets the final price after checking your application.
As a guide, Type 2 clients aged 50-59 with no complications disclosed typically paid £56.85 a month per £100,000 of level cover across the insurers we place with. That is a past example, not a personal quote.
Talk to a diabetes insurance specialist
Tell us about your diabetes and what the cover is for. We’ll check the insurers available to us, compare the realistic options and help with the application. The insurer makes the final decision; we make sure you go to the right one.
Questions people ask next
Does your type of diabetes affect the cost of life insurance?
It is one of the things the insurer weighs, alongside your age, your HbA1c and any complications, so there is no fixed gap between Type 1 and Type 2 prices. Here is a like-for-like example from our own cases, where the only difference is the type. Type 1 clients aged 40-49 with no complications disclosed typically paid £28.06 a month per £100,000 of level cover across the insurers we place with. Type 2 clients of the same age, also with no complications disclosed, typically paid £31.31.
Is there low cost life insurance for diabetics?
Yes. What you pay depends on the insurer, your age when you apply, how well controlled your diabetes is, and whether you have any complications. It also depends on how much cover you want and how many years it runs for. As an example, the lowest typical figure in our cases for Type 1 clients aged 40-49 with no complications disclosed was £16.19 a month per £100,000 of decreasing cover, at one insurer. That is why we compare across the insurers we place with rather than going to one. For level cover with Type 2 diabetes, we have looked at which insurer came out cheapest on our own cases: read which insurer is cheapest for level life insurance with Type 2 diabetes.
Where these figures come from
We counted the monthly premiums per £100,000 of life cover, and the ratings insurers stated, from More Than Diabetes applications and final terms. The wider analysis covers over 1,100 applications.
The Exeter was left out of the price examples for people with no complications disclosed.
These are past client prices, not live quotes, UK-wide averages or a like-for-like ranking of insurers. A diabetes-only rating is not the same as the total health-related charge. The dates show when insurers last offered these prices, not when we started collecting the information.
Our own figures are correct as at 11 September 2026. Insurer positions can change. We regularly review them and check the current position again before we apply.
