When you first set up your health insurance policy, you were asked about using tobacco. If you said you were a smoker, your premium went up. But if you hadn’t used tobacco for over a year, your premium was lower.
The reason for this is pretty simple: Smokers face more health risks, so higher premiums balance out the insurance company’s potential costs. But let’s say you were honest and said you didn’t smoke when you first got the policy, but you started smoking a year later. What then?
The specifics are in the fine print of your policy, but usually, your premiums stay the same. Health insurance mostly looks at your health status when you sign up, not afterward. So, even if you start smoking later, your premium or claims won’t be affected because you were smoke-free when you signed up.
However, a lot of people lie about their smoking habits on insurance forms to get better rates. A study showed that two-thirds would lie about smoking. So, even if you were honest, the insurance company might still doubt your honesty if you make a claim related to a smoking illness.
If you get lung cancer or a similar illness related to smoking, the insurance company will check your initial answer about tobacco use. If you said you were a non-smoker, they could get suspicious. The underwriter’s job is to look closely at claims and save money for the company, so they might look for a reason to deny your claim.
From their viewpoint, this approach makes sense. Most people start smoking as teenagers, not randomly later in life. Insurers know many people lie about smoking on forms. So, why should they pay your claim if you weren’t paying the higher smoker’s premium?
Even if you were honest at the start, ask yourself how confident you are that you didn’t smoke when you signed up. Can you remember exactly when you started smoking?
Making a claim for an illness not directly tied to your smoking is tough. So, even though new smokers’ claims shouldn’t be affected by the policy, it’s not going to be easy if the insurance company finds out you smoke.