Living a healthy lifestyle in the present world has become more of a necessity than a choice. If you lead a healthy lifestyle, your cost related to healthcare drops significantly. However, in the case of your unhealthy lifestyle choices, it not only adds to your stress metre but gradually increases your cost of living and medical expenses. Moreover, lifestyle choices do directly and indirectly impact how much premium you have to pay (monthly, quarterly, or yearly)
Hence, go through this article that discusses how each good and bad lifestyle choice affects you monetarily, and make a conscious effort to save your health and money together.
Lifestyle Choices That Directly Affect Your Health Insurance Premiums
You know that you can save money on your health insurance premiums under Section 80D, but why not use lifestyle choices too to gain some financial upper hand? Here are some of the lifestyle choices or habits to avoid that in the long term can directly impact health insurance premiums:
Smoking and Tobacco Use
Smoking and tobacco use is one of the most serious factors that can increase insurance premiums. As smoking is the leading cause of various health issues including respiratory diseases, health diseases, and cancer, insurance providers consider smokers as high-risk policyholders and charge larger premiums.
Policyholders who smoke can substantially reduce their premiums over time by quitting smoking.
Overindulgence in Alcohol
You know what indulgence or overindulgence in alcohol does to one’s life, the stories are everywhere. As excessive drinking is associated with a wide range of illnesses including certain types of cancer, liver diseases (hepatic steatosis, alcoholic hepatitis, and cirrhosis), heart disease, etc. insurance companies require larger premiums from individuals with a record of more than moderate alcohol consumption.
Obesity
Various factors like hormonal imbalances, genetics, and lifestyle choices contribute to obesity. As elevated BMI is associated with chronic illnesses like heart disease and diabetes insurers will demand higher premiums.
Seeking professional help along with making proper dietary changes and so on can positively impact health and getting affordable insurance premiums from providers, such as ACKO General Insurance.
Risky Activities and Hobbies
If you engage in dangerous activities and hobbies like recreational drug use, extreme sports, or specific high-risk occupations may lead to higher premiums. Insurance companies deem individuals who indulge in such activities on a fairly regular basis as high-risk individuals with an increased likelihood of health issues or accidents and require them to pay higher premiums.
Pre-existing Conditions
Pre-existing conditions are not directly linked to lifestyle choices, but they can impact positively or negatively on these conditions. If you follow your doctor’s advice and make necessary lifestyle changes you can keep your pre-existing illness under control and show your insurers a lower risk of illness which can result in reduced premiums.
Lifestyle Choices That Indirectly Affect Your Health Insurance Premiums
There are some daily habits that have a cumulative impact on any individual’s health over time. Knowingly or unknowingly practising these habits will result in worse health and increased health insurance premiums:
Poor Sleep Management
Chronic sleep deprivation can result in various health conditions such as obesity, stroke, high blood pressure, kidney disease, heart disease, depression, anxiety, and so on. This can affect your health insurance premiums over time.
As sleep deprivation builds up undue stress, and the stress acts against proper sleep, it creates a vicious cycle that only appropriate measures can break.
Poor Dietary Habit
A balanced diet rich in whole grains, fruits and vegetables, dairy or dairy alternatives, pulses, beans, fish, egg, or other proteinous foods can build a solid foundation. Conversely, a diet of saturated fats, processed sugar, and preservatives will get one closer to chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, eating disorders, certain cancers, heart-related problems, and obesity.
Inactivity
Certain types of cancers (uterine, breast, and colon cancers), metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and blood pressure, stroke, etc. are some of the diseases that stem from inactivity.
Engaging yourself in regular exercise, walks, or team sports can save you from a lot of future illnesses while providing a way to socialise, have fun, and save money on health insurance premiums.
Poor Stress Management
Poor stress management has a negative impact on your current health condition and over time accumulates more and more healthcare usage impacting premiums. Apart from physical ways of stress management (yoga, meditation, sports, exercises, etc.), one should learn mental techniques on how to deal with stress the right way.
The Bottom Line
This is the overall picture of the impact lifestyle choices can have on your health and health insurance premiums. If these have made you think about your daily habits, do give it more time and make informed changes as it not only saves your life but your finances too.
If you want suggestions for excellent plans that will give proper access to healthcare at affordable costs give ACKO General Insurance a try.
