A survey by Forbes Advisor found that 56% of respondents said they would lie about their cannabis use to avoid higher life insurance quotes. Only half of those surveyed knew that cannabis use affects life insurance rates.
In all, nearly 60% of respondents said they would hesitate to apply for life insurance because of their cannabis use and 24% said they didn’t want to be denied coverage for using cannabis.
Providing false information to life insurance companies is considered fraud and insurers are likely to decline or cancel policies when they discover the truth.
Less than half of those surveyed knew that other types of cannabis use could affect life insurance quotes – just 46% of those surveyed knew that vaping cannabis could affect their quote, along with 44% of those that consume cannabis edibles.
Residents in the Northeast were the most likely to be untruthful about their cannabis use to get lower rates (64%), followed by the Midwest (62%), Southeast and Southwest (52%), and West (49%).
Cannabis users typically will pay more for life insurance, for example, the report indicates that a 30-year-old male who uses cannabis occasionally – two or fewer times a month – pays an average of 23% more than those who don’t use cannabis at all; a 30-year-old woman can expect to pay 22% more due to occasional use; and quotes can be even higher for those who use cannabis more than two times a month, as much as 47% more for males and 34% for females.
A majority (60%) of survey respondents agreed that recreational cannabis use should influence life insurance rates, while 13% disagreed; 57% of those surveyed said that medical cannabis use should be considered, while 14% disagreed.
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