5 or 6 years ago, my wife and I decided to get life insurance through a major company. I won't mention any names, but they wear khakis. They asked me if I had used any tobacco products within in the last year. This was before all of this, and I answered truthfully that I had smoked 3 cigars over the past year. They put me down as a smoker, and wanted to charge me considerably more. I told our agent to change that or the deal was off. They complied, but it shows that they are willing to do whatever to get more in premiums.
Cigars and Health Insurance
- Thread starter tengel78
- Start date
You have to understand that a smoker(cigar, cigarettes, whatever) has a significant effect on actuarial tables for life expectancy. It has nothing to do with increasing premiums to make money, but to offset the risk the insurance company is taking on by insuring a smoker. While it is easy to think everyone is out there to get one over on you but that isn't the case when it comes to insurance.
Rupe
Suburban robot that monitors reality -BOM Feb.'13
There is a footnote on our insurance signup form, referring to the tobacco use question that states the following:
"Tobacco means all tobacco products including but not limited to cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco. You should only check the "yes" box above if tobacco was used more than 4 times per week on average (excluding religious and ceremonial use) within the past 6 months by someone of legal age to purchase tobacco in the state of residence."
I guess that I could claim that I belong to the "church of Churchill" and smoke as part of my daily religious meditation ceremonies but I really don't need to. Although there may be some days that I smoke 2 or 3 at a HERF or while driving, there are also many other times (especially in the winter) where I can go 2-3 weeks without having one. I'm pretty confident that I can rightfully claim that (on average) I have smoked less than 4 times per week over the past 6 months.
"Tobacco means all tobacco products including but not limited to cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco. You should only check the "yes" box above if tobacco was used more than 4 times per week on average (excluding religious and ceremonial use) within the past 6 months by someone of legal age to purchase tobacco in the state of residence."
I guess that I could claim that I belong to the "church of Churchill" and smoke as part of my daily religious meditation ceremonies but I really don't need to. Although there may be some days that I smoke 2 or 3 at a HERF or while driving, there are also many other times (especially in the winter) where I can go 2-3 weeks without having one. I'm pretty confident that I can rightfully claim that (on average) I have smoked less than 4 times per week over the past 6 months.
this was the same definintion my health insurance had.
My father is the VP at Nasco, which is a medical claims processing solutions provider for insurance companies. And he told me what plenty of other people on here have said, they will deny coverage if they can find that you are a smoker.
Some plans are already taking alcohol use and obesity into play for individual rates. In this way, we are basically moving to an a-la-carte style of insurance where group rates from companies will take into account each individual employees own personal health more and more as time goes on. The future of insurance will not only account for smoking, but any and every variable that carries additional health risks.
Some plans are already taking alcohol use and obesity into play for individual rates. In this way, we are basically moving to an a-la-carte style of insurance where group rates from companies will take into account each individual employees own personal health more and more as time goes on. The future of insurance will not only account for smoking, but any and every variable that carries additional health risks.
StogieNinja
Derek | BoM June 2014
Do not lie when talking about insurance. Don't put your family's well being in jeopardy for a few dollars. Do it right and make sure you're covered, for health insurance, but also especially when talking about life insurance.
AlohaStyle
BoM Sept '12 & Aug '13
Agreed, not worth the risk lying when getting life insurance. I told them I was an occasional cigar smoker... Tested okay and they still gave me the non-smoker status. Now days insurance companies are looking for any loophole possible to deny claims, why risk it? Plus, your wife will kill you if your family doesn't get the life insurance payout if you die.
ChefBoyRG54
BoM Sept '14 & BoY 2014
Damn, double edged sword there!
Agreed. That's why I decided to be honest. The bright side is that I can continue to smoke crack and do heroin without my rates going up.
They didn't ask if I was doing the hard drugs. Guess if we shoot up heroin instead of smoke the occasional cigar our rates will stay non smoker status. Seems I'm indulging in the wrong drug.
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8ball
Ruler of Grayskull
Agreed. I work in auto insurance, and we use credit as an underwriting factor. It's been proven that a good majority of people with poor credit are more likely to make bad decisions and have losses than someone with good credit. Unfortunately, some people with poor credit are great drivers, but have to pay more for "others" that have losses. While I'm not saying all tobacco users will face health problems, let's face it, we take a bigger health risk than non users, hence higher premiums.
One other thing, this is a very thought provoking post, well done brothers.
8ball
Ruler of Grayskull
That is pretty funny when you think about it. How about what car you drive (Ferrari or dodge caravan) or hobbies like flying a home made aircraft, BASE jumping, etc...
I think this is great. If they had different classifications, I wouldn't mind paying a few dollars more per month, being that I am an occasional cigar smoker. I do not, however, agree with paying the same price for health insurance as the guy who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day. Is smoking two or three cigars a week riskier than not smoking at all? Absolutely. Is it even close to the same risk as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day? Absolutely not.
You have to draw the line somewhere with the different classifications, otherwise you are getting very quickly to individually underwritten policies which will only lead to added administrative costs built into base costs of policies.
While it isn't necessarily right to classify an occasional cigar smoker to somebody who smokes a carton of cigarettes a week, it is what it is until you get to the point where health insurance is fully underwritten.
The concern with fully underwritten leads to costs that may be astronomical to certain classes of people, which will lead to waiving coverage, which then leads to more utilization of government assisted medical that will then blow up the Medicaid and Medicare system.
I just had to have blood taken and go through all of this for insurance and this bit of info is pretty key. Nicotine clears the system rather quickly but its byproduct can take up to a couple weeks before its levels aren't noticeable on a test. Quit smoking for 2 weeks, drink a gallon of water a day, and throw in some cardio to work up a good sweat and you'll have nothing to worry about. Do look up foods that cause false positives though because theres actually a few that can throw things off on blood tests i.e. broccoli.
AlohaStyle
BoM Sept '12 & Aug '13
I had to look since I'm on auto pay and couldn't remember, but I pay $31.62/month for $500k 25 year Life while admitting I was an occasional cigar smoker. Not sure if that's good or not, but I was happy with the rate from the comparisons I did at the time. As said above, just stay clean for a couple weeks before your test and you should be good to go. 
StogieNinja
Derek | BoM June 2014
Which company? I'm paying $45/mo for $350k/30yrs.I had to look since I'm on auto pay and couldn't remember, but I pay $31.62/month for $500k 25 year Life while admitting I was an occasional cigar smoker. Not sure if that's good or not, but I was happy with the rate from the comparisons I did at the time. As said above, just stay clean for a couple weeks before your test and you should be good to go.
AlohaStyle
BoM Sept '12 & Aug '13
Well I locked that in almost 5 years ago... Voya (previously ING) ReliaStar is what I have.