‘Premium’ Customers

Global reinsurers are pressuring underwriters to charge certain vapers higher rates than smokers or exclude them altogether, according to Reuters.

Most insurers have long treated smokers and vapers the same, meaning they can pay close to double the premiums of nonsmokers or nonvapers. But three major reinsurers have provided updated advice on vaping in the past three months with new warnings while others are considering their approach.

The new warnings focus on young vapers and the vaping of liquids containing the marijuana ingredient THC, which is legal and prevalent in some U.S. states and has been linked to lung illnesses in the country.

The shift in the reinsurance and insurance sector represents a further blow to the vapor industry, which markets its products as healthier alternatives to smoking.

One life insurer likely to resist the pressure is Reviti, a new insurer owned by Philip Morris International (also see, “Rewarding Change,” Tobacco Reporter, June 2019). It is offering a discount of up to 15 percent for vapers in Britain. Customers who quit tobacco and nicotine altogether get a discount of up to 50 percent.