Health Insurance

[CandyTX]

To the OP: Careful with that. Here's the thing... a standard nicotine test cannot tell the difference between e-cigs and cigarettes. Let's say you show up with cancer, you risk them not covering you or requiring you to pay back premiums - so I've heard anyway.

We can't get outside life insurance because of the nicotine test thing. We ARE covered through the husband's job now, thankfully.

$150 a month is insane. Do obese people pay more? People who ride motorcycles? I don't know, that's why I'm asking. How about people that heap on the salt or drink heavily? Don't know what they are going to do now that they've figured out air pollution causes lung cancer.

I can answer the obese thing. I used to weigh 375 pounds and I had an increased premium with an individual policy, once we found someone that would cover me. With group insurance, there's no difference and you don't have to qualify. I always thought it was weird that they didn't increase the premiums for obesity but did for nicotine since both are deadly. (I now weigh 150 so it's not an issue anymore).

Anyone who applies for a job and makes it to the job offer stage has to take a pre-employment drug screen and nicotine or cotinine is tested as well

THIS irritates me. I don't understand it at all. I don't understand how they can make something you do on your own time that is LEGAL a no-go for employment. It's always irritated me, when I was smoker, a non-smoker, vaper, etc.

 

[heroinesick]

Thanks for this. Our meeting is in a few weeks, I'm hoping that maybe there's a discount if you recently quit or something.

 

[FlamingoTutu]

I can answer the obese thing. I used to weigh 375 pounds and I had an increased premium with an individual policy, once we found someone that would cover me. With group insurance, there's no difference and you don't have to qualify. I always thought it was weird that they didn't increase the premiums for obesity but did for nicotine since both are deadly. (I now weigh 150 so it's not an issue anymore).

Congratulations on the weight loss! That's awesome! I did not know anybody was ever charged more for it. Preexisting is another beef I’ve always had. Okay, I have a huge problem with insurance companies altogether.

 

[WellAdjustedAndroid]

Insurance is still mostly regulated on the state level. The group markets (the insurance you get at work) and the individual market (now called Obamacare) also have different regulations. There are different types of group markets are well - in at least a dozen states insurers of small groups of employees aren't allowed to to use medical underwriting to set rates so it wouldn't matter if you smoked. Insurers use claim history to set rates though so if someone in that small group got lung cancer, the rates for the whole group would sky rocket affecting your employee contribution if you have one.

There's no prohibition on underwriting for insurers of large groups in any state I don't think, its just not very common. They usually just set rates based on experience with similar demographic groups. There's a whole different set of rules in most states for self-insured plans since the employer has most of the risk and the insurer only issues a stop loss policy.

The draconian anti smoking rules come from the employer, not the insurer. If you have to pay more for insurance for obesity or smoking or vaping or whatever - that's almost always imposed by an employer trying to control costs since the insurers in most states can't really vary individual premiums in a group. Usually employers want to discourage the behavior and reduce the risk/cost across a whole group. They typically aren't paying more for any individual smoker. If an employer wants to make a policy charging vapers more for health insurance, they are free to do that. I find that health care provider employers are particularly strict about smoking/obesity/vaping policies and the like. They LOVE wellness programs too. LOL. An employer can't get rid of you for the expressed purpose of avoiding paying health benefits generally...but honestly a horrible, not PR sensitive boss will just fire you as long and as they don't run afoul of ADA or FMLA laws and their state equivalents, they can usually get away with it. All the questionnaires and testing and whatnot just make it easier for them to do that.

If you do lose your job (and by extension your insurance) for being a smoker or anything else, you can use the individual market. The individual market (aka Obamacare and the health exchanges) allow insurers to charge smokers up to 50% more on the exchange. But certain states that are running their own exchanges have prohibited the practice of charging smokers more. California I know has done this. I'm not sure what other states have (I believe New York has banned it as well.) I don't think the federal Obamacare regulations address vaping either way. But state regulations may have specific language addressing it. It just depends on where you live.

I don't know what the person above is talking about - the government doesn't charge you for any type of health insurance product or premium. Maybe in some states expanded Medicaid programs there will be some token contributions required of smokers either adults or elderly needing long term care. But Medicaid typically doesn't have cost sharing (its a poor person's program.) I don't know of anything like this now though.

 

[Ld3441]

Mine actually went down $17 a week and smokers only pay $10 more per month. I have the same Kaiser Platinum coverage as last year. I actually didnt change mine to non-smoker because wasnt sure what their definition actually was. $10 a month who give a ..... anyways!

$10 more a month is reasonable. The 150% increase I was facing is crazy! Just my opinion of course.

 

[Ld3441]

To the OP: Careful with that. Here's the thing... a standard nicotine test cannot tell the difference between e-cigs and cigarettes. Let's say you show up with cancer, you risk them not covering you or requiring you to pay back premiums - so I've heard anyway.

In my case I was told electronic cigarettes are ok. Everyone that works there was told the same. I am not risking anything and if I was not told that I would pay the higher rate. As stated in a further reply, I do not want to risk coverage in case something were to happen and it was needed.

 

[Talyon]

Again, it appears that vapers have a huge complex of some sort.

My insurance went up MARKEDLY, last company I worked for. I was perfectly healthy, as a matter of fact, I was about to receive an award for never taking a day off in a year.

Yet....I suddenly had to pay a ginormoous premium. Mine went up because I worked with a large number of young people, who were starting families, and everyone was having babies, and mre babies, that year.

My boss, the VP of the company, had a massive heart attack, and had to have all kinds of fixes.

That was how the insurer and Human Resources explained it to me.

I didn't throw a fit. Yes, we all work with obese people, smokers, vapers, baby makers, heart attack survivors, etc. That's what it is all abbout when you join the "community" that is your workplace. Insurers "ding" for all kinds of reasons. If it was a workplace with all older people, I'm sure the ones with high blood pressure or knee replacements would be dumped on.

Actuaries get their risk information from keeping records. Anybody who once smoked, who now vapes, IS STILL A HIGH RISK GROUP.

Just because you started vaping doesn't mean you undid the damage of years of smoking, nor does it mean you are participating in a Harm Free behavior.........vaping is harm reduction ...not harm free.

At least, for now, until more research is done, esp. on flavorings. When it can be shown that after a year, or 3 years, or 5 years, that a vaper's lungs look good and have cleared (and that would require a baseline lung xray from before you quit) then they don't know yet.

I got a baseline xray and a full profile of blood work WHEN I began vaping. Here we are, a forum of thousands, and so much great informaton could be collected. From members. From memebers getting checked out and having this information to supply.....but I never see many people doing that?

Anyway, I will actually have certifable medical data, on myself, as a vaper, for at least 18 months now...... or however long I vape which may be many yhears, I dn't know yet.

So how many of you have usable medical documenation on vaping versus smoking? Seems like that would help our cause more than complaining and worrying that's all. .

I do, I have X-rays and blood tests all done just prior to Vapeing. Woohoo!

 

[v1k1ng1001]

Excellent. I have Blue Cross of Georgia... Hopefully they will have the same criteria.

Unfortunately that's not the way it works.

Blue Cross Blue Shield was basically left to fail by the Nixon administration's policy to create the HMOs we have to day. What happened was that the federal regulations protected BCBS were abolished and the HMOs cherry picked the young and healthy leaving BCBS to collapse (which is part of the reason 1/3 of America is now uninsured or underinsured).

These days BCBS is basically a brand. Within a given territory, HMOs license the branding of BCBS to sell their coverage packages. In other words, I have BCBS in Texas but that just means I'm buying a certain HMO's coverage package through the BCBS branding. If you have BCBS in Georgia or Illinois it is likely that you are buying coverage from an entirely different HMO. Hence the small print can be entirely different as the corporate bureacracies behind them are completely different---there is no reason to expect continuity of any sort.