Regulators Consider Whether Health Insurers Can Charge E-Cigarette Users More

Federal authorities are debating whether health insurance companies can charge e-cigarette users more under the Affordable Care Act, as they are allowed to do for smokers of traditional cigarettes, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Under the Affordable Care Act, smokers can be charged a higher premium than nonsmokers. Smokers who obtain their insurance through an individual plan will not benefit from a provision in the law that allows smokers in small group plans to avoid the higher premiums if they participate in a smoking cessation program.

The law specifies that new individual and small group health plans can charge up to 50 percent higher premiums for smokers starting in 2014, but does not explain whether that group includes e-cigarette users. Small group plans, which include companies that employ up to 100 people, can implement the increase only if they also offer a wellness program that helps people quit smoking. The same protection is not available to people obtaining insurance through individual plans.

A spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the agency is evaluating how issuers may treat people who use e-cigarettes. No timetable has been announced for the review, the article notes.

Some employers, including Walmart, charge employees who use e-cigarettes more, because of concerns over potential health risks. Both the tobacco industry and some health advocacy groups oppose an insurance surcharge on e-cigarette users.

David Howard, a spokesman for R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co., told the newspaper, “We don’t believe policies should be implemented that might deter current smokers from considering switching to smoke-free alternative products like e-cigarettes.”

An estimated three million people in the United States use e-cigarettes.