Th(E) Cig

If you are surprised when you see someone puffing on some sort of high-tech pen or flashlight looking object you need to get out more. E-Cigarettes or E.C.'s are taking the tobacco market by storm. Currently, an almost 3 billion dollar industry that's growing faster than it ever has before, and nobody really knows the long term effects of inhaling vaporized nicotine.

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One thing we can be pretty sure about, is that it's considerably less harmful than traditional cigarettes. There is no tar, burning, or combustion happening. A battery heats liquid nicotine into a vapor which is then inhaled by the user. This is true for most E.C.'s that you will find in a gas stations but this industry is so new with very few regulations people are buying e-cigs overseas or from small companies that offer different features. Some if which give the user the ability to choose how much vaporized nicotine is inhaled. This is called "Dripping" many of the devices that allow you to do this can get hot enough to create combustion resulting in the inhalation of the carcinogen formaldehyde. A carcinogen is found in traditional cigarettes. This being said cigarettes have over 400 chemicals and more than 60 carcinogens. So the E-cig "should" be considerably less harmful but how do we gauge the monetary difference between Non-Smokers, E-Cig Smokers, and actual Smokers when it comes to healthcare?

     

Under ObamaCare smokers can be charged up to 50% higher than non-smokers and for good reason.  It's pretty hard for someone to truly understand how much smoking actually costs. Purchasing the cigarettes is not even half of what it costs you to smoke. For your entire life you will be paying more for health and life insurance not to mention dying sooner and getting sick more often. I'm getting off topic. What I really want to talk about is how do insurance companies know what to charge people that smoke E.C.'s??? It doesn't seem fair to charge them as much as "Actual cigarette smokers" but you can't charge them as little as someone who doesn't continuously inhale a substance that is deadly if a few teaspoons of it gets consumed (Nicotine).  I have been unable to find any information on the cost relationship between smoking E.C's and health insurance. Can doctors run test to see how much a persons nicotine intake is? Is it easier to lie about smoking E-Cigs? Are more regulations going to be made now that more people are smoking them? There are many unanswered questions about these devices but I am a fan of them. They deter people from smoking and smokers raise the cost of care significantly for everyone. So even though these E-cigs are not perfect I feel comfortable saying they are a step in the right direction.

EVERA. Everyone should feel this good about healthcare.