Prescriptions for diabetics range very widely. But what you may not know is, your medication may actually help or hurt your ability to buy life insurance.

Diabetes prescriptions affect your life insurance premiums because they directly attribute to what rating you can get.

Because there are so many different types of prescription medications, including forms, dosages, and even experimental drugs, underwriters scrutinize your personal prescription use, past and present.

Yes, Diabetes Prescriptions Affect Your Life Insurance Rates (And Why)

While it’s just one of many factors in buying life insurance as a diabetic, your prescription drug use greatly defines your body’s ability to properly use the amount of insulin it has access to. The term most often used is control, and how much control you have is paramount to getting approved.

Ideally, you need as little medication as possible, and your numbers remain steady. An applicant who has maintained a consistent prescription, without needing to modify it, for a long period of time, has the best chance at the best rates.

On the contrary, one who can’t seem to find the medication which is best for them and sees high fluctuations regularly will not.

Of course, what type of diabetes you have, whether it’s type 1, type 2 or gestational diabetes, will greatly impact what medication you’re prescribed. This can also have a direct impact.

A person needing insulin shots twice daily will, almost always, pay more than a person just needing a small tablet daily.

Here are some of the more common medications used by diabetics:

• Avandia
• Adlyxin
• Glucophage
• Glynase
• Humalog
• Metformin
• Prandin
• Welchol

Now, even if you are currently in stable condition, your use dosage and frequency of use are consistent, and you’re in overall great health, there is another factor which affects your rating pretty highly.

The company you choose.

Every life insurer is familiar with all the different types of medications and prescriptions (including the off-brands), but how they treat them in their underwriting process differs.

For this reason, the top companies for diabetics aren’t easy to spot unless you’ve got in-depth knowledge of their underwriting guidelines. Make sure you do your due diligence before applying.