The most insane thing I have ever heard in my life

As of yesterday I am 6 months without cigarettes. So I call Blue Shield to see if I can get a rate reduction, on my health insurance.

Blue Shield says to me, "No, sir, whether or not you smoke has absolutely nothing to do with insurance rates"

!!!

How can that POSSIBLY be?

I mean, I'm fine that I'm not getting a rate reduction -- and I was thinking the demarcation line might be more like a year than six months, at that -- but how could it be POSSIBLE that smoking doesn't have an impact on rates?

I said, "Are you telling me that if I pick up a five packs a day habit tomorrow, my rate stays exactly and precisely the same?" Yes. They should advertise that, don't you think? "Smokers! We'll insure you anyway for the same cost!"

Some days I wonder about what planet I live on.

I swear to god that every doctor I've ever seen for thirty-something years told me to stop smoking, or my health would suffer -- how does insurance actuarial tables take that into account? Hell, for that matter, why does the application even ask if you smoke in the first place? I am, officially, baffled.

-B