How your present health/lifestyle affects your Life Insurance Premium

The benefits and importance of life insurance can never be exaggerated. There is one important aspect that determines your premium. It’s your health and living a healthy lifestyle. Curious about how your current health status affects your insurance premium?

While calculating your insurance premium, several components and factors are considered by an insurer. Apart from the assured sum, health conditions have a significant impact on the cost of the premium you pay.

Without lowering the coverage or benefits of your life insurance there are other smart ways to bring down the cost of your premium. One of the cheapest and most effective methods is taking care of your health. Let’s dive deep into understanding how your life insurance premium is affected by your current health.

• Pre–existing medical conditions: You will have to pay more for your life insurance coverage if you suffer from high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, cancer, and other medical conditions that your insurer specifies. Never hide facts about your preexisting medical conditions because your claim may be rejected and your family won’t benefit from insurance after your death.
• Medical History of your Family: Your insurer is also interested in your family’s medical history and not only your personal medical history. This will help them know if you are genetically predisposed to suffer from illnesses such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, etc. If the answer is yes, then your term insurance premium increases.
• Drinking Habits: Insurers will consider you to be at risk of serious kidney and liver diseases if you are a heavy drinker. This will increase your premium cost.
• Smoking Habits: Smoking has a negative impact on every aspect of your life. Smokers are considered high-risk insurance by the insurer because there is a likelihood of claims due to disability, critical illness, or premature death. There is a notable difference between the insurance of smokers and non-smokers. The premium is 40-60% higher for a smoker as compared to non-smokers.

It seems harsh, but insurers have to calculate your life expectancy and risk profile based on your current health for a suitable premium amount of coverage. It would be unfair to those people maintaining good health were having the same sum assured, tenure policy, and are equally charged.

Whatever the type of insurance, buying it early will help save premium costs because health, and age are important factors that determine insurance costs. If you are planning to buy a term insurance plan we recommend you check the Elephant.in Page.