Term Life Insurance Articles
Smokers: Not All Are Equal In The Eyes Of Life Insurance Companies
2010-01-24
When looking for term life insurance, you're bound to notice that many different rates are available for different types and amounts of coverage, and these rates are greatly affected by your age and health. You may have also noticed that smokers don't get the same options (or the same good rates) as healthy, non-smoking individuals, and you might have wondered why exactly this is. Sure, smoking's an unhealthy practice, but the difference it makes when it comes to term life insurance coverage is quite significant. Can smoking really be so bad that these huge differences are warranted? Well, in a nutshell, yes. But to understand why, it's helpful to first take a look at how insurance companies decide which coverage to offer.
You might have heard about the "tables" that insurance companies use. These are basically a huge number of statistics that are useful in predicting a person's life expectancy accurately. Obviously, in the world of insurance, life expectancy is incredibly important, so great care is put into developing and maintaining the insurance tables. This way, when a new term life insurance quote is requested, an insurer can see how much risk they'd be taking on in insuring a certain individual--if there's a decent chance that the individual will die within the term of the policy, then it's not in the insurance company's best interest to offer that individual the policy. If the policy is offered, the premiums will likely be very high to match the risk of the policy from the insurer's standpoint.
Smokers are, unfortunately, in the riskiest group due to the myriad of health problems that the habit causes. No single activity can affect your life insurance coverage as drastically as smoking, because no single activity affects your health in as significant a manner. As most smokers are aware, cigarettes can cause heart disease, cancer, emphysema, and other life threatening conditions. While your family history may ultimately be a better indication of your overall health rather than whether or not you're a smoker, it's hard to verify a family history, and quite easy to verify whether or not an individual smokes.
For the best rates on life insurance and the longest life expectancy, it's best to stop smoking as soon as possible. Many health plans cover stop-smoking treatments, and incidentally, health insurance should decrease in cost when the practice is stopped too. There's no shortage of benefits, not the least of which is your insurance premium cost. Quitting smoking is a great decision, a smart decision, and the month to month savings can be absolutely massive.
