Life/health insurance?

[geeker]

Since smokers often have to pay a higher rate for insurance, I wonder if anyone has thought about how or if switching to vaping might benefit them in that regard.

You would still test positive for nicotine and it's metabolite cotinine on a pre-insurance physical if you vape with nicotine.

As far as I know, the mere presence of these substances put you into the tobacco user category. Like NRTs would.

Any insurance agents out there care to comment?

Do we need to think about educating the insurance companies?

I have a feeling they would not care that we aren't using tobacco, per se, and would just continue to charge us the tobacco user's rates.

 

[wanderlust]

Not an insurance agent but, I was told I would test positive on the swab test for nicotine (unless I quit for a few days) and be billed at the higher rate. If I managed to get the lower rate and developed a "pre-existing condition" I may even be denied reimbursement.

 

[geeker]

I hear you.

I got my life insurance when I wasn't smoking.

However, I bet that if I got an illness that could be related to smoking later in life, they wouldn't pay out anyway.

I want to increase my policy, but am worried about what would show up on the physical.

 

[Hellen A. Handbasket]

This is from my husband who is a broker/dealer for several life insurance companies.

Insurance companies are not going to be up to date on this technology. It all depends on the wording on your application... If it uses the word tobacco, you can put NO. If it says nicotine, you can try to explain, but it probably won't do any good.

Even if it say tobacco and you say no, there may be testing for nicotine.

Some companies will not do a blood/urinalysis test for insurance. It depends on your age, and the amount of insurance coverage you want (if it's a million, you can bet that they'll order the tests). If you need to be tested, it is best to quit using nicotine in the e-cig before the test, but he wasn't sure how long before a test (probably 5 days is safe to have traceable amounts be gone). He had a cigar smoker test positive, they retested him later, and he got the large $$ policy.

Eventually, insurance companies will have to come up with a different chemical test to determine cigarette use vs. e-cigarettes. Nicotine is being looked at again, so that could impact this as well. Yet another hurdle to jump for the e-cig user.

I'd think having your physician document your medical file that you have quit using cigarettes (date) and use an e-cigarette is probably a good idea. If something happened, then attorneys could always fight for you if a life claim was denied because of traces of nicotine.