the long and impressive body of research on snus (which is not sold in the United Kingdom) and the shorter, smaller but still substantive body of work on e-cigarettes (which has been sold widely for less than a decade) both indicate these products are significantly less harmful than cigarettes. This doesn’t mean all e-cigarette and snus users should get rate cuts or that every insurer should be forced to recognize the risk differential in their underwriting and rate-setting. But the U.K. experience with e-cigarettes indicates there’s at least some market willingness to take differing harms into account. Even if they don’t want to go as far as some U.K. companies have gone, U.S. life and health insurers should watch the situation closely to see what they can learn.
