Buying Disability Insurance As A Smoker

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Smokers and Buying Disability Insurance Today
Reasons Not To Wait
by Anthony Delvecchio

As someone who is currently a smoker, I understand the back and forth battles a lot of us have gone through. Over the years I have quit for as long as 15 months, only to go right back to smoking a pack a day. Recently I had a potential client tell me, because of the premium rate increase for smokers, they are going to hold off on purchasing a disability insurance policy until they have quit. This led me to write this article on why you should not wait to get this important coverage.

Smokers and Buying Disability Insurance Today How many times you have as a smoker thought, today is the day I quit smoking? I know I have this conversation with myself at least once a month. Coincidentally, it is always on Monday I will quit. It is difficult, and it may not happen for another 10 years. By postponing your disability insurance coverage until this happens you are leaving a giant gap in protection for you and your family. What if you never get around to quitting? What if before you quit, you have a negative change in your health? Keep in mind, yes you pay a higher premium today but you can always lower the premium in the future by simply doing what you swear you are going to do soon, quit. Insurance carriers will generally change a smoker’s rating if the insured has quit for at least a year (some require two), completes a change application, and completes new blood work showing zero nicotine in the body. This includes all nicotine items that some may use to quit such as nicotine patches and gum. If the insured is still currently using a patch, the insurance company will not reduce the rating. There are so many statistics pointing to the increase in health risks for smokers, it is pretty awesome that as a smoker you can still purchases this type of policy.

The odds for a smoker to become diagnosed with lung cancer are 1 out of 7¹, if they continue to smoke a pack a day throughout their lives. However, if you quit before the age of 42¹your odds go down to 1-100. Simple, quit now or soon and you do not have to worry about becoming disabled because of lung cancer. Think again. More smokers die of heart disease than lung cancer--not to mention that smokers have greater susceptibility to emphysema and other chronic illnesses. These chronic illnesses lead to potential long term disability claims.

I am pretty confident as smokers we are all well aware of the health issues associated with smoking. To this day it has not changed our opinion enough to quit. Who knows, maybe this Monday you actually will quit. However, if this Monday becomes just another day on the calendar it is important that you didn’t hold off on an application. Take advantage of the fact that disability insurance is still available to smokers, that the insurance company is willing to review and reduce a smoker rating. Do not wait for a day that may or may not come as soon as you would like. Get a policy today and work on quitting in the process. If something happens, you have peace of mind of knowing you did the right thing by you and your family.

¹Read more: (Time Magazine US)

Anthony DelVecchio, Financial Representative, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian), New York, NY. The views and opinions expressed here are that of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, its subsidiaries or affiliates.

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