Montana Insurance Commissioner Monica Lindeen reminded Montanans Thursday that insurance companies can charge them 50 percent more if they smoke. Laura Parvey-Connors said the campaign comes just in time as the American Cancer Society celebrates the annual Great American Smokeout – a one-day event encouraging smokers to quit – if only for one day.

"We just thought it was a great time to remind people that there are financial benefits to quitting smoking when it comes to health insurance," Parvey-Connors said. "Federal law actually allows insurance companies to charge up to 50 percent more for your health insurance each month if you smoke. So by quitting smoking, you can lower your health care costs, along with lowering your risk of diseases like cancer, heart disease and stroke."

Parvey-Connors said a policy that might cost a non-smoker $200 a month would cost a smoker $300 and federal health insurance tax credits do not lower the smoking surcharge.

"We are just letting people know that if they currently have health insurance, they may want to reach out to their health insurance carrier to see if there are available programs to help them quit smoking," Parvey-Connors said. "If you're a smoker, you're going to have high health care costs associated with those diseases. We would just like to say 'Now is the time to kick some ash.'"

The American Cancer Society has marked the Great American Smokeout on the third Thursday in November since 1976, when the California Division of the American Cancer Society encouraged more than one million people to stop smoking for a day, and hopefully, for life.

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