Do I need to tell me health insurance company if I only smoke a few times per year?

Most types of insurance will use whether or not you smoke as part of the basis for determining your premiums. This is especially true in health and life insurance, but it also applies to car and home insurance as well. In all cases, statistics have shown that smoking can increase the risk of insuring you dramatically.

It does not matter whether you smoke regularly or have only backslid due to stress in your life. If you have smoked cigarettes in the past year and have to take a medical exam for health insurance, your insurance company needs to know about it. Before the exam, and again when you take it, make sure that you let the insurance company and those giving you the exam know that you have smoked.

Tell the insurance company as much information as you can about when you have smoked, and how much. Since nicotine remains in your system for days or months, the chances are good that your smoking will be detected, and being upfront with the information can prevent serious complications later, such as being turned down for coverage or even facing the possibility of being accused of insurance fraud.

You may have to pay higher smoker's rates. If so, pay the rates. After you have been smoke-free for an entire year, you can contact your insurance company and request the lower nonsmoking rates. At that time, you will probably have to undergo at least a portion of the medical exam again, and if the results come back negative for smoking your rates will go down. Finally, take a look at some ways to get cheaper health insurance.