I live in New Zealand, so may be a bit different here. I went through an insurance broker who was going to look into health, income protection and life insurance for me. None of the companies he worked with would give me health or income protection insurance because of my diabetes (although if it had been less than 10 years since diagnosis I might have had more luck apparently). He did manage to find a company who did a life insurance policy which didn't involve any medical questions, apart from asking if you suffer from any condition likely to cause death in the next 12 months. So I guess it pays to just look at all your options and shop around. And get as much cover as you can as early as you can, even if you don't need it at the time, because it will probably just become harder to find cover. I've just turned 22, no kids etc or anything that I would really need life insurance for, but it will come in handy one day, for things like getting a mortgage as you say.
Sorry for the ramble, hopefully some of it might be useful to someone, and good luck in finding your insurance