How quitting smoking affects your body and insurance premiums
Did you know that recovery starts within the hour of smoking your last cigarette?
Years of chain-smoking make it tremendously difficult to quit, as it entails breaking out of the destructive cycle of cigarette addiction. However, while it can take a while to completely quit smoking, the human body can actually recover from the negative effects of smoking on a much smaller timescale!
Before we see how well your body can recover and heal after you quit smoking, let’s first take a look at why you should kick the smoking habit.
Effects of smoking
It comes as no surprise to hear that “Smoking is bad”, as seen from decades of research and studies proving how smoking is harmful to human health. However, smoking could bring far more ramifications to your health and other aspects of life than you might think.
Read on to find out more about the physical impacts, social and psychological effects, as well as monetary costs that smoking can bring about.
Health consequences
Smoking can increase your risk of contracting a variety of ailments and illnesses. Many smokers have been reported to have a lower sense of smell and taste, causing them to suffer from a suppressed appetite, resulting in weakness and weight loss, muscular atrophy, and overall ill-health.
Smokers also have elevated heart rates, and this could raise the chances of cardiac arrest or stroke.
The dangers of smoking on one’s health need no introduction. Having a chain-smoking habit has been linked to severely impacting one’s overall health, whether in terms of daily wellbeing or when it comes to the heightened risk of potentially life-limiting diseases.
Smoking can also affect your social life
That’s just the health consequences of smoking. Cigarettes have a distinctive smell that becomes a part of the smoker’s personality. The odour is generally unpleasant and is unappealing to others.
Tooth discolouration is another trait of a chain smoker, while some smokers suffer from yellowing of nails and fingers. Smoking also leads to bad breath, making it difficult to socialise with others as people avoid building a conversation with them.
The monetary cost of smoking
Smoking is an expensive habit in Singapore. According to Statista, the average cost of a pack of cigarettes in Singapore is S$13.06. Therefore, a pack-a-day habit costs S$404.86 a month and S$4,858.32 annually.
It’s not just about the cost of buying cigarettes.
Since smoking leads to elevated risks of ailments, doctor visits may become more frequent, which would definitely have an impact on an individual’s wallet.
Smokers have to pay higher premiums compared to non-smokers on most health insurances in Singapore. This is evidently because smoking has been shown to raise your risk of acquiring health disorders and your likelihood of seeking healthcare and filing claims.
Quitting smoking can help you save money on your health insurance premiums. The icing on the cake is that you will profit from being healthy, which cannot be quantified.
In addition to the higher day-to-day and medical expenses that smokers incur, smokers also pay higher premiums compared to non-smokers on most health and life insurances in Singapore.
This is evidently because smoking has been shown to raise your risk of acquiring health disorders and your likelihood of seeking healthcare and filing claims.
How does your body heal after you quit?
Most people do not believe it, but quitting smoking has immediate benefits. Let's look at how your body recovers in various time frames:
How quitting smoking will affect your insurance premiums
While it may seem like a small amount, in the long run, the additional costs that smokers have to pay for their health and life insurance premiums will snowball to a substantial amount.
To illustrate the difference in annual premiums that a smoker and non-smoker have to pay for life insurance, let’s look at the case below where we have assumed the following:
● 35-year-old Singaporean, male
● Coverage Period: 10 years
● Coverage Amount: S$200,000
In other words, if you were to kick the smoking habit, you can cut down on your health insurance by almost 50%.
Conclusion
Smoking damages not only your lungs but also burns away your future as well. Much of the harm that smoking causes is long-term and difficult to reverse.
Start taking care of your body and it will take good care of you in the future.
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