In a press release, Samsung Life Insurance quoted remarks by noted medical researcher Robert Pokorski, MD, stressing the need to apply different insurance premiums for smokers and nonsmokers in South Korea.

Pokorski, who is vice-president of worldwide medical research and development for Gen Re LifeHealth, made the remarks at a recent seminar hosted by the Life Care Institute, Samsung's insurance research center.

At the seminar, Pokorski said that as the smoking rate of American men dropped between 1965 and 1980, from 52 percent to 38 percent, nonsmokers began complaining about paying the same premiums as smokers.

As South Korea has witnessed a similar drop in smoking, from 52 percent in 2005 to 42 percent in 2007, it's time that different premiums be applied to smokers and nonsmokers here, he said.

Currently, domestic insurance companies offer some preferential rates, such as a 5 to 10 percent discount, to nonsmokers who have bought whole life insurance policies. But American and European insurance companies receive premiums of 30 to 40 percent higher from smokers, as smokers and nonsmokers have widely different mortality rates.

In regards to Samsung Life Insurance's unprecedented statement, the insurance industry said that Samsung may have been using the words of a foreigner to address this sensitive topic. Declining to reply directly to inquiries, Samsung Life Insurance said it is planning to gather public opinion and the views of the industry on the issue.

(englishnews@chosun.com )