Home Life insurance Oral swab testing for life insurance applications Oral swab testing for life insurance applications Some insurance companies make use of a quick and easy swab test to determine if applicants are smokers or drug users. The results will affect your insurance rates. Written by Barbara Marquand Reviewed by Nupur Gambhir Nupur Gambhir Nupur Gambhir is a content editor and licensed life, health, and disability insurance expert. She has extensive experience bringing brands to life and has built award-nominated campaigns for travel and tech. Her insurance expertise has been featured in Bloomberg News, Forbes Advisor, CNET, Fortune, Slate, Real Simple, Lifehacker, The Financial Gym, and the end-of-life planning service. Updated on: July 7, 2023 Why you can trust Insure.com Quality Verified At Insure.com, we are committed to providing the timely, accurate and expert information consumers need to make smart insurance decisions. All our content is written and reviewed by industry professionals and insurance experts. Our team carefully vets our rate data to ensure we only provide reliable and up-to-date insurance pricing. We follow the highest editorial standards. Our content is based solely on objective research and data gathering. We maintain strict editorial independence to ensure unbiased coverage of the insurance industry. To find out if you’re as healthy as you say you are on your life insurance application, insurance companies sometimes require saliva samples. The test is simple. A swab is rubbed on the inside of your cheek, and the sample is sent to a lab. Although blood and urine tests are still very common, swab testing is faster and easier. The procedure may be short, but that little sample of saliva can tell a lot about you, including whether: You smoke You take drugs You’ve been infected with HIV or hepatitis B or C The answers will impact your life insurance quotes. Key TakeawaysInsurance companies may use lab work or an easier swab test to see if applicants are drug or tobacco users.Swab tests are generally used for younger applicants applying for lower face amounts.Swab tests can detect nicotine and other drug use as well as HIV.Insurance rates are higher for smokers and other drug use. When are saliva tests used for life insurance? Not all life insurance companies use swab tests. Those that use swabs don’t necessarily use them for every applicant. Insurers may rely on saliva samples for younger life insurance applicants and people who purchase policies with lower face amounts. Insurers don’t use the swab test for genetic testing. Saliva samples are a less-expensive alternative insurers use when they don’t think fuller screening is necessary. New York Life Insurance Co., for example, uses swab tests on all applicants 18 and older for policy face amounts from $50,000 to $99,000, says Stephen Bloom, New York Life’s first vice president and chief underwriter. Blood tests are used for people 18 and older who apply for policy face amounts of $100,000 and over. Why are saliva swab tests used? The saliva test is easy and only takes a few seconds, enabling life insurance agents themselves to collect the swab samples from clients in many instances. In others, the medical professionals conducting exams give the swab tests. Swab tests have a couple of advantages over blood and urine tests for insurers: Swab tests have a couple of advantages over blood and urine tests for insurers: Less invasive for the customer Less costly for the company Doesn’t require a licensed medical professional to collect The test is so easy, in fact, that life insurance agents themselves collect the swab samples from clients in some instances, Anderson says. In others, medical professionals conducting exams administer the swab tests. What are life insurance companies looking for in saliva? Life insurance companies vary in the types of tests they run on saliva samples. Insurers most commonly want to know whether the applicant is a drug or tobacco user or is HIV-positive. Insurers are especially interested in cocaine use because of the risky behaviors that accompany abuse of that drug, but the samples can also be tested for use of other drugs. Swab tests are additionally used for detecting methamphetamine. To find out whether you’re a smoker, the lab tests the sample for cotinine, a chemical the body makes from nicotine. If you’re not a regular smoker, and you just happen to take a few puffs on a friend’s cigarette at a party, the level of cotinine probably won’t be detectable after a couple of days. But if you’re a regular smoker, it will take longer for the level to drop. The length of time could vary from several days to two months in rare cases, Anderson says. It’s best to be honest about your lifestyle when making a life insurance application. Lab tests likely will catch you in a lie. If you lie about smoking and then die due to a smoking-related illness, your beneficiary’s claim could be denied and they may end up with nothing. To ensure an accurate test, don’t eat anything right before the test. If you do happen to eat or drink something, rinse your mouth out with water. See Insure.com’s Best Life Insurance Companies × Get Free Life Insurance Quotes Today! 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