Friday, February 19, 2010

The Impact of Smoking on Life Insurance Policies

The Impact of Smoking on Life Insurance Policies

Everyone knows tobacco is bad for your health. Smoking is bad for you, no matter if you are the smoker or the one standing near the smoker. If you smoke one pack of cigarettes a day, you can lose up to 7 years off your life expectancy. So clearly, ignoring your health while also smoking adds up to a shorter lifespan than for someone who has never taken up smoking. Due to passive smoking more disease are being caused by healthy living people rather than regular smokers.

Smokers are charged a higher price on their Insurance premiums. There is a clear response for anyone questioning why this is happening. The insurance companies want to ensure that they get good value for their investment, especially when seven years is taken out of their life expectancy.

A smoker may develop many complex diseases including ulcers, infertility in women, impotency in men, higher blood pressure, a weaker immune system, emphysema, cancer, heart attacks, and others. Lung cancer, especially, is one of the major reasons for a large amount of deaths. 400,000 individuals die of smoking each year. Just think about how even one cigarette can have lasting impact on somebody's life.

It's futile to debate why smokers pay higher life insurance premiums. Smokers have to pay more because statistics show they die at a younger age. Along with dying younger, they typically have more insurance claims than people who never smoke.

The negative impacts of smoking tobacco on society and the environment are partially addressed by life insurance company premiums. Having a risk is the main issue for more expensive life insurance. Smokers tend to feel sick more often than non-smokers. Fearing the effects of second-hand smoke, non-smokers worry about their health, and the possibilities of developing similar diseases to smokers without ever having lit a cigarette.

The life expectancy of a person directly affects the life insurance rates as there is a higher chance of death of persons prone to more diseases. Insurance companies recognize different types of smokers and set premiums accordingly, which may work in your favor. The history of a person's smoking habits is what determines how he is classified. A non smoker defined as not smoking a single cigarette for five or more years belongs in the "preferred plus" classification.

To be classified as "Preferred" people are required to not have smoked for a minimum of three years but to be classified as standard people are required not to have smoked for a minimum of one year. These make sense, in that "preferred plus" holders pay smaller premiums than those paid by "preferred" holders. You can pay more as a standard holder in order to obtain a bigger premium. Supposing variables like weight, cholesterol and blood pressure are the same in all three classes.

Disclose the fact you smoke, because it will be obvious upon examination. One sure way to bring down your premiums rates is to give up the smoking habit as soon as you can.

Tiffany Provost writes about General Health Care and other Health & Fitness for HowToDoThings.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tiffany_Provost

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