What do you tell your Doctor?

[Cabaiguan Juan]

I have a physical coming up, and I'm debating telling my doctor if i smoke, or how much I smoke. I was wondering what you guys tell your Dr. Another question I have is with Life Insurance. Of y'all who have life insurance, do they know that you smoke, and how much? How much of a finacial impact does this make on your premiums for both health insurance and life insurance? If this is treading on your personal info then don't worry about posting anything.

[kevin7]

I am up front with my doc and Ins companies. Doc is fine with it, if your doc spazzes out about it you need to find a different doc. Mine is a female and very opinionated but also realises she is not the boss of me .She stated once about she does not care if you use heroin but she needs to know so she can have a complete picture . If you lie to Ins then they will try and F you when its time to pay.

[WOXOF]

Yep, tell both. My life insurance company was more concerned about me taking flying lessons than smoking a cigar.

[cigarsarge]

I agree with K7.

[heftysmokes]

Ya, don't bother lying, it's only going to hurt you in the long run.
As far as financially, my brother in law said it costs him an extra $23 a month insurance wise to tell the truth about his cigar smoking.
I think the shittiest part about the whole insurance thing is, they don't care if you're smoking a half dozen cigars a month or 2 packs of cigarettes a day...it all pays the same to them.

[chefchris]

I told the doc only occasional cigars, never cigarettes. Don't have life insurance.

The nurse asked if I smoked the ones that smelled. "No, I enjoy Radon and Methane cigars."

[Cabaiguan Juan]

Yeah, what K7 says makes a lot of sense. I've had the same experince that Hefty has had too, the nurse i saw last time said that one cigar is the same as 100 cigars. I think thats BS but thats seams to be the health industry's take on it, and I wont be able to change that.

[cigar no baka]

Tell the insurance company and your doc the truth. If not, it will just give the ins company one more possible reason to deny your claims to your survivors.

[597]

I would say to tell your doc the truth (as many others have said). I would look at what your insurance company consideres smoking before you tell them you do (some insurance companies only refer to Cigarettes and allow for some small amounts of smoking/cigars). If they do consider a cigar or a couple a week smoking then definatley tell them or they have a right to refuse payment to beneficiaries.

[Lopaka]

I tell the Flight Doc the truth. Since I only smoke 2-3 a week. I get no grief over it. I have LI and they don't ask any questions.

[maademperor]

I had a doc tell me once that I was the picture of health...great blood pressure, blood work came back great, get plenty of exercise, dead sexy, smart, ect, ect. Then she said something along the lines of "and since you clearly dont smoke" and I said "well I smoke cigars....", so she listened to my chest again and then she proceded to diagnose me with asthma? gave me a prescription for an inhaler and everything. needless to say, I dont have asthma, never have and will not be visting that doc again...

this is why healthcare is so fubared in this country

[nhcigarfan]

I'd tell the truth to the Doc.

In New Hampshire, if you lie about smoking on your insurance app. and they don't figure it out, after two years it doesn't matter. They cannot claim it as a reason to deny coverage.

That being said, I still wouldn't lie.