Need Help with a Health Insurance Question

[tanless1]

ive recently registerd for healthins. again. couple questions concern me.
1) have you ever used drugs,or sought help for adiction ? im coming up on 13 years
clean; and yes,a non-court orderd 12 step program is involved. i answerd "no"
2) are you a tobaco user ? i never was a cigeratte smoker. i did however begin smoking
cigars this year. due to my schedule , im lucky to enjoy 1 a week (and often times,not
even that) my answer was again "no"
will these answers be an issue in my furture ?
thanks in advance Tim,Idaho

[Dr Steve]

ive recently registerd for healthins. again. couple questions concern me.
1) have you ever used drugs,or sought help for adiction ? im coming up on 13 years
clean; and yes,a non-court orderd 12 step program is involved. i answerd "no"
2) are you a tobaco user ? i never was a cigeratte smoker. i did however begin smoking
cigars this year. due to my schedule , im lucky to enjoy 1 a week (and often times,not
even that) my answer was again "no"
will these answers be an issue in my furture ?
thanks in advance Tim,Idaho

This is a tough one. Ethically, I can't recommend that you fib to your insurance company. On the other hand, they might deny you coverage if you tell the truth.

If it was me, I'd be proud of the 13 years of sobriety and tell them so. But that's me...I'm not recommending that you do that, necessarily, just an opinion. You have to make these decisions yourself, but you need to know the up and downside to not being perfectly truthful on an insurance application.

The main downside to not telling them this stuff is that if you ever, say, have a heart attack (gawd forbid) and you rack up a $100,000 bill in the hospital, the insurance company could use your disinformation on your application as an excuse not to pay the bill. Likely? not really...possible? sure! If they don't pay, you don't get a refund for all those years you paid them premiums, either.

I once told an insurance company that I smoked cigars once a week myself...I ended up getting good insurance for just a little more than the "preferred" insurance. Again, I can't say this will be the same for you. If they do a urine test as part of your sign up, they WILL do a urine drug screen and a urine nicotine.

I'm really not an expert on insurance issues, so don't listen to me on this. Let's see if anyone has any information on this issue and posts in this thread.

good luck!

and congrats on the 13 years!!!!

your pal,



steve