If you've searched Google for health insurance that covers type 1 diabetes then you are probably for looking for established UK based health insurance providers that will cover your type 1 diabetes.
Our advice when looking for private medical cover that covers type 1 diabetes is to speak to a health insurance broker. Health insurance is extremely complicated and if you want complete certainty that type 1 diabetes is covered you should consult with a broker who can explain which providers will cover this medical condition and which will not.
There are many advantages to using a insurance broker but the largest by far is that you're using their expertise at no cost. They are paid by the insurer (Aviva or Bupa etc) rather than by you so it costs you no extra to use their brokering services.
- Do you live in many different areas? Some will give you a lower premium than offers. A broker will be able to advise whats best.
- Do you have a hobby that may invalidate your insurance policy? A broker will know this vital information.
- If you are a couple and one of you has claimed on your insurance policy this year would it be cheaper to separate you both onto two different insurance policies?
- You've developed a certain condition and want to know which policy provider offers the largest amount of cover for it. A broker will know this instantly saving you huge amounts of time and effort.
You can call around every health insurance provider you can find and ask if they cover type 1 diabetes, however this will be a very time consuming process. Each insurer will ask for your medical history because its not normally a simple yes or not if a medical condition is covered or not.
Its far far quicker to speak to one health insurance broker which will know which providers on the market cover type 1 diabetes and under what terms they do or don't cover it.
Type 1 Diabetes Information
Diabetes is a lifelong condition that causes a person's blood glucose (sugar) level to become too high.
The hormone insulin – produced by the pancreas – is responsible for controlling the amount of glucose in the blood.
There are two main types of diabetes:
This topic is about type 1 diabetes.
Read more about type 2 diabetes
Another type of diabetes, known as gestational diabetes, occurs in some pregnant women and tends to disappear following birth.
It's very important for diabetes to be diagnosed as soon as possible, because it will get progressively worse if left untreated.
You should therefore visit your GP if you have symptoms, which include feeling thirsty, passing urine more often than usual and losing weight unexpectedly (see the list below for more diabetes symptoms).
Type 1 diabetes can develop at any age, but usually appears before the age of 40, particularly in childhood. Around 10% of all diabetes is type 1.
In type 1 diabetes, the pancreas (a small gland behind the stomach) progressively reduces the amount of insulin (the hormone that regulates blood glucose levels) it produces until it stops producing any at all.
If the amount of glucose in the blood is too high, it can, over time, seriously damage the body's organs.
The symptoms of diabetes occur because the lack of insulin means that glucose is high but isn’t used by your muscles as fuel for energy.
When blood glucose is high, glucose is lost in your urine and you may become dehydrated.
Typical symptoms include:
The symptoms of type 1 diabetes usually develop very quickly in young people (over a few hours or days). In adults, the symptoms often take longer to develop (a few days or weeks).