Summary

Great Britain is becoming a nation of fatties with nearly a quarter of all adults having weight problems that impact on their health, which includes 24 per cent of females in the obese category. There’s a growing problem with children too as 16 per cent of them share their parents’ problems.

Fatties not fit for life insurance

A worrying fact is that a quarter of children are classed as overweight before they are old enough to start school. That figure is one in three by the time they enter secondary school at the age of 11.

Obesity can be related to a range of health problems including diabetes, heart and liver disease and even cancer. In less than a decade since 1999 the number of doctors’ prescriptions for obesity drugs rose from 127,000 to more than a million.

And now the insurance companies are going to make the fatties pay.

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The Body Mass Index (BMI) is the tool used to calculate whether a person is of ‘normal’ proportions, or ‘overweight’, or ‘obese’, which is anyone with a BMI of over 30. This is the figure at which many insurance companies start charging up to 50 per cent higher premiums. In the past a BMI nearer 40 was used, but as it became clear how serious Britain’s obesity problem was, the figure was lowered to 30. However, they might decide to drop lower still, heading closer to the 25 mark where the ‘overweight’ category starts.

If you are obese and also have other high-risk factors such as being a smoker or suffering from certain medical conditions, the increase in the cost of your premiums could soar to a staggering 400 per cent!

An example for 150,000 pounds of life cover for a 55-year old man in good health, who is a non-smoker of normal weight, is about 1,000 pounds a year. Let him become obese and his 25-year policy could cost him 500 pounds more.

Not all insurance companies use the same BMI rate. The second largest insurer, Norwich Union, uses 35 as the figure at which to raise the premium costs, and the third largest, Friends Provident, goes from 33.

Legal & General, Britain’s leading insurer, uses a BMI of 30, and said that 13 per cent of new customers would have to pay the higher premiums.

L&G’s director of underwriting and claims, Russ Whitworth said, “Most people understand that poor diet and lack of exercise can lead to health problems but they might not realise that being significantly overweight would also make their life insurance more expensive. (cheap car insurance)

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