In the recent emotionally charged presidential election, the question of healthcare, health benefits and insurance premium costs was brought loudly to the center stage of the nation's awareness. Individuals, couples and families began to evaluate their healthcare coverage if any and weigh in on the debates that have transcended the election and are still in hot contest to this day. Many people have become dissatisfied with their current coverage and are looking to change insurance providers while others are deciding to get medical coverage for the first time. Sometimes the process of medical insurance coverage can be confusing especially to individuals not familiar with the process.

Medical insurance companies operate on the principal that each month, or other designated pay period, many different clients pay set amounts of money into a large pooled fund that the insurance company manages. When one of the clients becomes sick or needs to access the funds, the insurance company then pays out on the policy based on a set number of situational criteria. The whole system works based on the assumption that most of the clients paying into the pooled fund won't need to access it because they are in good health, or that they all will not need to access it at the same time. In this way, the insurance companies are able to pay their operating costs as well as make a profit.

When comparing one company's health insurance quote against another, it is important to remember that the insurance companies take into account many different details of a client's life before calculating what the monthly premium would be. Health insurance companies, of course, prefer to insure reasonably healthy individuals who represent a lesser risk of poor health and therefore a lower possibility of the insurance company having to pay out on a serious health issue. Because of this, insurance companies often require clients to undergo medical exams and fill out numerous questionnaires detailing their lifestyle and family health history. One of the biggest risks for a health insurance company is to insure tobacco smokers.

Because tobacco smokers have been at such high risk for serious and life threatening conditions, they represent a significant possibility of loss to an insurance company. Were a smoker to be insured and then develop a serious cancer, there would be incredibly high expenses accrued to the insurance company in the form of therapies, medications and surgeries. This is why, in order to balance their losses, an insurance company would offer a higher health insurance quote to a tobacco smoker, where they would have to pay a higher monthly premium.