Health Insurance: "Tobacco User" or Not?

[fanofwalt]

We have just become eligible under an employer's health and life insurance plan, and I was wondering:

When they test your blood to determine whether you are a smoker, is it nicotine they're checking for? That is, will I still be assigned tobacco-user rates for insurance even though I'm no longer smoking?

Now, I've only been vaping for about two weeks, so I'm certain my body still has a lot of the gunk from 19+ years of actual smoking, but, I'm curious how vapers show up on the insurance charts for coverage costs.

Anyone know?

 

[Nestran]

I believe it is Cotinine that they check for which is one of the metabolites of Nicotine. Yes, you would have a hard time saying you are a non smoker. I didn't even bother to try to get the non smoker rate. I just chalk it up to more stupidity. Next year insurance is going to start to penalize for a lot more than smoking so...

 

[martha1014]

The only thing they actually check for is nicotine as far as I know. But of course you could say you are using the gum and other NRT.

 

[nubee]

Then is should be changed to "Nicotine user" cause tobacco isn't the only way to get nicotine....

(Nicotine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants (Solanaceae)

The family is also informally known as the nightshade- or potato family. The family includes Datura (Jimson weed), mandrake, deadly nightshade (belladonna), capsicum (paprika, chili pepper), potato, tobacco, tomato, eggplant and petunia.

So for you next physical at the insurance office, just tell them you've been smoking potatoes

 

[AllieBee]

Well someone who is strictly a vaper is not a tobacco user, but the urine test the insurance companies require do test for nicotine use. But what if one uses 0 nic juice?

 

[ZeroNullity]

I already answered this in a previous thread... but here goes again.... They do check for cotinine which can be detected in the blood or urine. Cotinine is a byproduct of nicotine. Cotinine has a half life of about 20 hours... and nicotine has a half life of about an hour... thats why you crave cigs every few hours. If they do test for cotinine in the blood they will assume your either a smoker or a smoker trying to quit. It would be best to simply confess that you do not use or smoke tobacco but use a product with nicotine in it. It takes about 4-7 days of no nicotine to pass a cotinine test. Alliebee - 0 nic.. It wouldn't show up in the test.

 

[Keef]

If they only ask do you smoke Tobacco then the answer is no.

If they ask have you ever smoked tobacco the answer is yes.

 

[Madame Psychosis]

Interesting topic.

They really should be testing blood CO2 content. High CO2 in the blood is a pretty reliable indicator of whether one has been smoking anything (tobacco or otherwise), and it would (by all reasonable prediction) not be increased by vaping.

One could just be taking nicotine replacement therapy, for all they know (though, hell, with the quit-rates on gum and patches, the companies may as well assume you'll be a current smoker soon enough again). Or horsetail extract, which is sold as a dietary supplement and has small amounts of nicotine in it.

 

[thewomenfolk]

I'd be interested to know if anyone here has called their Insurance Co. and asked about this. Maybe I should do that. If I do, I'll come back and give a report.

 

[Slickstick]

You have to explain that vaping nicotine is not smoking tobacco. The harm is in the tobacco not the nicotine. The ban's I believe were put in place because of second hand smoke. Vaping has no second hand smoke.

As far as insurance.. They should give you a discount for Vaping until it is proven to be bad like cigarettes instead of assume it is bad because they are not informed.. which will likely never happen. To ban it until they find out is the wrong way to do it. Guilty until proven innocent. Everyone who vapes claims instant health improvements over smoking.

 

[abhowe]

I recently applied for Life Insurance through Banker's Finance Company...... They sold me 25,000 basically with no questions...... Applied for 100,000 and was told they would ask about smoking...... I explained about E-Cigs and the agent said he thought he could push it through because it is not smoking......
To get the Non-Smokers rate, he said most insurance companies require that you have not smoked in over one year..... He also said, I would have to prove I am using E-Cigs and not conventional cigarettes...... How do you prove that, I asked.......
He said keep all your reciepts for all of your Vaping Products that I buy...... He said any reasonable person that saw me buying E-Cigs, batteries, atomizers, E-Juice and the rest, on a regular basis, would conclude that I am no longer smoking.......
Now I keep all my receipts, empty juice bottles, bad attys and the like to show........
The agent said, He thinks he can get me the non-smoker rate after one year......

 

[legbuh]

I got life insurance last year. I was smoking then. I told them I was. I got a copy of my bloodwork and guess what. Zero nicotine in my blood. I hadn't smoked for 2-3 hours before that. I did this purposely to see what the levels would be.

So that that for what it's worth.

My agent also told me I was the only smoker to ever get a "preferred" rate. He said exercise regime is probably what did it. Weights 2-3x a week and Cardio 2-3x a week.

 

[Thulium]

My insurer (Kaiser Permanente) sent me a letter saying that because I had enrolled in their smoking cessation program online, I was eligible to get "smoking cessation aids or NRTs" at the copay price. Since the FDA says that e-cigarettes are being marketed as a smoking cessation aid, shouldn't my insurance pay for it?