Indiana insurance rates could increase after e-cigarette report

A quotewizard.com study found that Indiana ranks third in the nation for e-cigarette users. The study also shows that about 3.6 million middle and high school students admitted to using e-cigarettes in 2018.

The findings in this study could cause insurance rates to go up in the state of Indiana.

“The insurance companies are allowed to, under the ACA, charge up to 50 percent more for tobacco users,” said Sandi Pontius, Coordinator for Smoke-free St. Joe. “Now that the FDA is looking to classify E-cigarettes as tobacco product, anyone who uses the e-cigarette are going to be subject to that raise in insurance rates.”

A big factor in whether or not e-cigarettes could raise insurance rates will be whether or not the CDC recognizes them as a tobacco product or a tobacco cessation device.

“E-cigarettes are not approved by the FDA as a cessation device. Even though people are saying that they use them to quit, they’re not approved for that. There is kind of a controversy between are they used for quitting, for current smokers to quit or a gateway for youth to initiate tobacco use and nicotine addiction,” said Pontius.