Life/Health Insurance - Smoker or Non-Smoker

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Permalink Reply by Billy on September 9, 2009 at 10:29pm

I think I figured out on my own that this was a stupid question to post......ha ha. Gonna go and have a smoke now :)

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Permalink Reply by Chris Huntley on October 7, 2009 at 2:37am

They do test for it, but you can generally have it out of your system in 3 weeks. With that being said, there would still be a question on the application if you have used any form of tobacco. If you lie, that's considered insurance fraud. Another risk you take is if you die within the first two years of owning a policy, the insurance carrier can investigate your case and potentially contest your life insurance claim if they find out you smoked cigars and didn't disclose it on the application.
Your best bet is to apply with a life insurance carrier that allows cigar use and doesn't give you smoker pricing like ING or American General.

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan on September 26, 2009 at 12:19pm

Smoking right now is under attack in the health care system as the most preventable diease causer in the world. Infact some businesses made it a precondition for workers not to engage in tobacco use in the office or at home as health premiums go up and hence cost more money. Alot of people say they should do this tax spikes because they dont want to pay for our health problems when they get older. However smokers are in an unfair posistion. What about tanning? What about unhealthy eating? What about soda drinking in excess? What about acoholism? There is no much more unhealthy life styles that can be taxed which I hope one day will be mentioned to put the anti smoking nazis in their place.

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan on September 26, 2009 at 3:46pm

True but there is evidence that is hard to argue that drinking lots of sugar and and alcohol can lead to diabeties and surrosis of the liver. All because of excess drinking. But, drinking soda, especally in the south is a staple of american culture, I highly doubt they can curve the desire for it by making it costly. Just another loop in the hole of the anti smokers, they love to say we will be a big burden on the health care system when they often overlook their own lifestyle!

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan on September 26, 2009 at 4:56pm

yea I agree in the end its about money, hence why they started taxing it in the first place!

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Permalink Reply by Chris Huntley on October 7, 2009 at 2:30am

I can only speak to the life insurance side of this question, as I am an agent. On all life insurance applications, they ask if you have smoked any type of tobacco in the past 5 years. So even the occasional cigar smoker who doesn't smoke cigarettes has to own up to it. The good news is there are quite a few life insurance carriers who will allow you to smoke cigars socially, or what they call a celebratory cigar and will still give you their non tobacco rating.

It's important to know where to go because there are a lot of life insurance companies that will only allow one cigar per month, but I know of two carriers who will let you smoke up to a cigar per week, and you can still qualify for their preferred non tobacco ratings, assuming you're in good health, have a clean driver's record, don't participate in any hazardous activities like racing, etc. Then some carriers don't allow any cigar smoking at all, and you'll pay tobacco rates. You don't want to do that because you'll pay two to three times as much.

I wrote a more detailed post about this on my term life insurance blog for smokers at: http://www.insuranceblogbychris.com/cigar-smoking-life-insurance

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan on October 8, 2009 at 10:37am

Chris, thank you for that informative post. That is quite amazing that Insurance companies can even be that liberal with cigar comsumption. However the research I have done still leads me to concude there is still a wide spread use of misinformation about the effects of cigar smoking. Check out my health forum to see further details. While chances of cancer are increased with anyform of tobacco use, the increases are quite minimal. 1-2 cigars a day with no inhalation gives a cigar smoker a lesser chance of getting lung cancer than someone who doesnt smoke at all. Oral cancers are the kicker in cigar smoking, but I have nocticed most studies dont distinguish people who inhale and dont inhale in terms of cancers in the throat and those solely of the mouth. But again its encoraging that insurance companies dont totally discorage cigar smoking.

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