Health/Life Insurance Implications

[kelli]

not sure if anyone has brought up this topic before, but here goes. i'm sure like many of you, i have always paid higher prices for life insurance because of tobacco use. many health insurance companies are now charging higher rates for smokers also.

i informed my insurance company that i quit smoking about 6 months ago and they said "great, let us know in 6 more months if you are still 'clean' and your premiums will go down". but..........

the only way they can tell if you are tobacco free is to run nicotine analysis of your blood. so even tho i quit smoking, nicotine will still show up in my blood and they will assume i am still smoking. i am thinking of switching to 0 nic juice for a few weeks before i have the blood test. not sure i can do it without killing someone tho.

i think it's unfair that we quit smoking and are still treated like smokers by insurance companies. does anyone see a solution to this dilemma. (and i always thought that word was spelled "dilemna". Wrong!)

 

[WBB0]

Are you paying a higher premium for "tobacco use" in general or specifically for smoking? It has been my experience that the higher premiums are targeted at smokers and pretty much ignore smokeless tobacco. There are many ways to explain nicotine in your system that don't involve smoking. Smokeless tobacco, vaping, nicotine gum. In any case, they'll try to screw you over if at all possible.

 

[Centurion]

This brings up a good point in general about your permanent electronic medical record and self-admissions that can come back to haunt you.

Don't do it.

Since you no longer smell like smoke or your clothes just tell your doctor you quit and get him or her to write it into your record. Non-smokers don't have to submit to blood tests to prove they're non-smokers but you do because you admitted to your doctor that you smoked.

In future you have to remember they're not just doctors, they're first line information gatherers.

 

[kelli]

ok thanks guys, i guess i am responsible for some of this then. comes with being vapid.

 

[AttyPops]

An insurance agent told me that some of the tests can detect tobacco use for 3 years back.........

What floors me is, like you mentioned, nicotine use vs tobacco use (smoking in particular). Oh well.

I'd rather we just reformed the whole insurance industry and quit all this "cherry picking" crap. Avoids the costs of all the test and such too. Grrrrr.....

 

[XeniaMike]

Our company just "re-upped" our plans for the next year. The question on the form was "Tobacco use." Not "Nicotine use." That being said, who's to say if I get in a car accident or something they can't test me for nicotine and cancel me and refuse to cover the claim? I don't trust them to do anything but squeeze me for money.