Can E-Cigarettes Change Your Health and Life Insurance?

We are in the beginning stages of deciding if e-cigarettes will affect your health and life insurance premiums, so if you are using e-cigarettes or thinking about it, stay current with insurance news.

It isn't a secret that tobacco is physically bad for us. Smoking cigarettes is known to cause damage to every organ in our bodies. That information isn't a surprise, and so many smokers want to quit. One way some smokers are trying to quit is by using e-cigarettes.

An e-cigarette is different than a cigarette in that it uses a liquid instead of tobacco. The e-cigarette heats up the liquid and the liquid turns into a vapor. So, if you use an e-cigarette you are inhaling a liquid nicotine vapor, not tobacco smoke.

So, why the questions about health and life insurance if you smoke e-cigarettes? Because we don't have enough research to know the long term effects. Some studies tell us there are health benefits, some say there are no conclusions and some studies tell us that smoking e-cigarettes do not help people quit smoking and might even damage lungs. There just isn't enough evidence since the technology is so new.

So, what are some insurance companies doing?

• Some insurers consider the use of e-cigarettes to be similar to cigarettes, so the insurance premiums are the same, which are higher than for non-smokers.

• Most life insurance companies consider smoking e-cigarettes the same as smoking cigarettes.

• Some health insurance providers require even e-cigarette users to prove through blood or urine tests the absence of tobacco, and the nicotine in some e-cigarettes will show up in the tests.

We started with the question of whether or not e-cigarettes could change your health and life insurance premiums. For the time being, it depends and you need to check with your provider, although most insurance companies are treating cigarettes and e-cigarettes similarly. Later, research may help answer some of the questions that still remain.

Ask about the details of your policy today. Call Heritage Insurance Group for more information on health insurance.