Guide
Health classes explained
What Preferred Plus, Preferred, Standard Plus, and Standard mean, and which things affect which class you end up in.
Insurance companies sort term life customers into rate classes. Company names for the classes shift a little, but the structure is the same everywhere: Preferred Plus (sometimes called Super Preferred or Preferred Elite), Preferred, Standard Plus and Standard, then special ratings for higher risk. Smokers have their own parallel ladder, with higher fees.
What underwriters look at
Weight and height in relation to each other, blood pressure and cholesterol numbers, whether heart disease or cancer runs in the family before age sixty, your driving record, what medicines you take, what you do for work and free time, and tobacco or nicotine. The top class wants nearly all of these to be in great shape; Preferred gives a bit of room; Standard Plus and Standard accept well-managed situations like blood pressure medicine.
How to use the quote tool
In the health question, you pick the level that fits you truthfully: Excellent pairs with Preferred Plus, Very good with Preferred, Good with Standard Plus, and Average with Standard. The quote uses that class; the insurer sets the real class after underwriting. Torn between two levels? Try quotes at both, then let the application sort it out. An inflated self-rating does not reduce your actual premium—it just makes this estimate wrong.
Susman Insurance Agency can point you toward carriers whose policies treat your specific health situation more favorably—a choice that can matter far more than the price you see at first.