Where There’s Smoke, There’s Increased Premiums…
So, we finalized our insurance policies today. We decided that some increased insurance was in order, what with the increased number of kids and all…
Our physicals were last month and went really well. They took blood and urine, plus measured our blood pressure along with our resting and active heart rates.
The good news? I received a Preferred Elite rating, the highest that you can get, which means, in simple terms, I got a decent amount of insurance for little money. The annoying news? Chris received a mere Preferred rating. After teasing him about this for awhile, I decided to ask our agent why the big difference. And get this - it’s because Chris smoked a cigar last year. Yes, you read that correctly. A cigar. Last year.
We are not smokers. I used to be a social smoker, which means I had an occasional cigarette when out for a drink or two. I was (thankfully) never addicted and I gave it up altogether when the girls came along. It is a nasty habit and I didn’t want the girls to ever see me doing it.
Chris has never smoked a cigarette, I don’t think. He has, however, been known to enjoy an occasional cigar. And by occasional, I mean maybe four a year in our pre-kid years. And one last year.
I was the one who encouraged the full disclosure. As an estates lawyer, I have witnessed many an insurance company who managed to wiggle out of payment based on a discrepancy characterized later as a willful lie. As I told Chris, there is probably a picture of him smoking a cigar floating around somewhere (perhaps taken by my crazy neighbor in a fit of her trying to prove that we’re giving her cancer - more on her some other day) and that’s the last thing we need, to lose a claim based on some goofy interpretation of the question “Do you smoke tobacco products?” So, we told the nurse who gave us our physicals about our respective histories. And I came back as “no problem” but Chris is on par, practically, with a smoker - which cost us some money. All because of one lousy cigar.
There’s a Clinton joke in there somewhere but I’m just too tired to think of it… Insert your own political humour here.
So, we get points for honesty. But we lose some dollars. As Chris is fond of saying, it’s getting more and more difficult to tell our children that honesty is the best policy. In today’s society, lying seems to get you everywhere - including the White House - whereas honesty costs you.
Sigh.
But it’s still the right thing to do… isn’t it?