E-cigs are a complicated issue in terms of health insurance

e-cigarette vapor health insurance

Federal regulators are considering the role that e-cigs play in health insurance coverage Regulators are discussing whether or not health insurance companies that participate in state insurance exchanges can levy a tobacco surcharge on policyholders that use e-cigarettes. This is the latest development in the ongoing debate over the health problems that could be linked to these electronic devices. Currently, the overriding consensus among federal regulators is that e-cigarettes are just as dangerous as normal cigarettes despite the fact that they have no tobacco content. E-cigarettes are not well understood, from…

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E-cigarettes are causing insurance confusion

e-cigarettes or vapor

Now that the FDA plans to regulate the devices like their tobacco alternatives, insurers are facing complications. The Affordable Care Act has allowed health insurance companies to charge premiums that are up to 50 percent higher to smokers and other tobacco users than they would to nonsmokers, but the introduction of e-cigarettes into the marketplace have started to make rates calculations a little bit less clear for those insurers. These battery operated devices have some of the properties of their tobacco based counterparts, but not others. Therefore, when it comes…

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