How does smoking affect my life insurance?
Ramon
Amarillo Texas
There are around 30 percent of men and 19 percent of women around the world who smoke. Over a hundred thousand of children aged 15 years and below are smokers. One in every ten fatalities is due to smoking related diseases. Given these facts, it’s no wonder why most insurance companies have been very stringent over their guidelines when it comes to smoking related cases.
Several insurance companies evaluate their applicant’s health condition by conducting several medical check ups and laboratory tests. Life insurance tobacco test is one popular medical examinations employed by most insurers. This test is designed to verify the presence of nicotine in the body system of the applicant.
A life insurance tobacco test is performed by drawing out blood or urine sample. If you are found positive of nicotine traces, you will be required to pay tremendously high premium rates for life insurance.
Simply explained, smoking puts your health at risk which increases your chance of dying soon. Since you are expected to die early, most insurers take that as a huge risk to their business. To circumvent any early death benefit payments, they require you to undergo their life insurance tobacco test and collect more premiums at once by charging you higher insurance costs.
Whether you pass the life insurance tobacco test or not, the most crucial part is not to lie on your insurance application. Remember that your policy is a legal contract between you and your insurer. The application you sign automatically becomes part of your policy and any false information written to it by you will result to a cancellation of coverage. Insurers may also refuse to give death benefits for a smoking-related death or if you are found out that you quit smoking just to pass the test but later resume smoking.