It has been 50 years since the U.S. Surgeon General released his report on smoking and its negative effects on health. During the ensuing half century, there's been a massive shift in public attitude toward smoking, as well as a significant change in the number of smokers. People still smoke, of course, and psychology is central to understanding the impulse as well as kicking the habit. Dr. Sherry McKee, a researcher focusing on gender differences and smoking, shared the following discoveries in January:
- Stress plays a significant role in smoking behaviors of both sexes. In fact, stress is the primary reason why smokers continue to smoke, and why ex-smokers return to smoking.
- Depression also influences the likelihood that a person will smoke. Forty percent of people who meet the criteria for major depression in the U.S. smoke; that's double the rate of smoking among non-depressed adults.
- Women have a harder time quitting smoking than men.
- Women are also more susceptible to tobacco-related diseases than men.
- Women tend to smoke in an effort to regulate negative mood and manage stress, while men tend to smoke for the reinforcement they receive from nicotine.
It's no secret that the urge to begin and continue smoking has psychological origins, and many a marketing firm has certainly tried to maximize the psychological impact of cigarette ads, such as the sophistication and independence portrayed by a skinny Virginia Slims model. Pavlovian reflexes, such as reaching for a cigarette as soon as you lay eyes on a cup of coffee or catch a whiff of someone else's smoke, are also significant parts of a smoker's everyday life.
If you're still smoking, you may or may not yet fully understand the psychological reasons behind your habit. But you should understand smoking's impact on your pocketbook. In addition to costing you your most important possession, your health and all the extra money you spend on cigarettes, smoking also increases the cost of your health insurance.
Prior to the Affordable Health Care Act, many health insurance companies would charge smokers higher premiums. Now, they all do. If you're a smoker, you are the only type of person who is penalized under Obamacare for having a pre-existing condition which condition being smoking. Your health insurance premium can be as much as 50 percent higher than that of a non-smoker all the more incentive to take advantage of the many resources available designed to get to the psychological heart of your habit and help you break it.
Call or contact Litaker Insurance today to talk about how smoking, or not smoking, affects your health insurance policy.