How much does an unhealthy lifestyle cost you?

This article is from the February, 2008 edition of Consumer Reports. Very interesting!

Unhealthy habits not only tend to catch up with us as we age, but they also can hit our bank balances in the form of higher life-insurance premiums.

We asked Accuquote.com, an Internet life-insurance broker, to find the best rate on a $1 million, 20-year, guaranteed-level term premium policy for a 40-year-old, 5' 10" male who maintains a healthy lifestyle. Then we asked for the best premiums for the same person if he had one of several risk factors often associated with poor health habits. We then calculated how much more that added to premiums over the 20 years. We found that dropping 20 pounds (to 185 pounds) or reducing borderline high blood pressure to less than 140/85 with medication saved $4,600, using medication to cut cholesterol by 80 points to less than 220 and the total cholesterol to HDL ratio by 3 points to less than 5.0 saved $17,800, and quitting smoking for three or more years saved $42,000.

So, your poor health can cost from $4600 to $42,000 (and of course even more). I guess preventative health care does pay off!