Insurance Rates for Smokers

The insurance companies always seek the subscribers with minimum risk to their health as that brings down the chances of paying back any benefits to a very low level. Smokers, as everyone knows, carry a big health risk. They develop complications and even die early as compared to the non smokers. Therefore, the health insurance and the life insurance companies raise the premiums to up to 3 times what non smokers might pay.

When you buy an insurance policy - a term life insurance policy or a permanent life insurance policy, the insurance companies do a complete health checkup to determine any health associated risks. If you are a smoker, the blood sample they would collect from you would reveal the presence of nicotine and regardless of what you tell them about being a smoker or not, the insurance companies would always go with the test results.

Sometimes if you do not smoke for about a week, the blood may not contain any nicotine traces and the insurance companies would treat you as a non smoker unless you tell them that you smoke. Normally, addicted smokers cannot stay away from smoking for a few days which makes it easier for the insurance companies to rely on the health test results. If one can stay away from smoking for a week, it is possible to give it up completely. Even smoking only sometimes can develop into a full blown addiction to smoking and raise your insurance premiums.

If you are buying an individual health insurance you would be subjected to the same kind of health checkups and would get a higher premium if you are a smoker. If you get a group insurance like the one from an employer, you would not have to undergo any testing and your health insurance premiums would also be the same as the non smoking employees.

What if you somehow are successful in cheating the insurance companies and prove that you are a non smoker when you are not? Well, it would be only a matter of time before the insurance companies find out. If you go to a doctor with a smoking related complication, your medical bills would reveal to the insurance company about your smoking habit and the premium would go up right away. The insurance company might also create legal cases against you since when you buy a policy you confirm that all you are telling the insurance company is the truth.

Secondly, cheating the insurance companies in fact is like cheating everyone else because the insurance companies have to pay out for the cheating smokers while getting a lower premium from them. This raises the cost of providing insurance thereby raising the premiums for everyone else in the system.

The best policy is to not smoke. If you do, just be honest about it to save troubles later in the life. If you get an insurance denied because you lied, it would not be easy to get another insurance coverage and that can make the life of your family in trouble after you are no more.