Will Obamacare force more smokers to quit?
The Affordable Care Act will impose large insurance surcharges on tobacco users. But people in smoking-cessation programs will get a break.
Obamacare bans higher premiums or the denial of health coverage because of pre-existing conditions. But one group will still find themselves penalized: smokers.
The new measures in the Affordable Care Act, which goes into effect next January, would allow health insurance companies to charge tobacco users up to 50% more for individual policies. And the costs of that rate hike would come entirely out of smokers’ pockets.
A recent Associated Press report notes those surcharges, nearly $4,250 a year on top of premiums for a 55-year-old smoker and close to $5,100 for a 60-year-old, could impose a heavy financial burden on individuals with a tobacco habit "at a time in life when smoking-related illnesses tend to emerge."
The ACA penalties could give added incentive to companies looking to sidestep smokers as potential employees.
Smoker protection laws already exist in 29 states and the District of Columbia, but that might be changing. Oklahoma, for example, is considering a bill that would repeal those laws. "These are the kinds of protections you’d think we have for race and gender, not smokers," State Sen. David Holt told KFOR-TV. "Just as a smoker has made a choice, employers ought to be able to make choices too."
Nearly 20% of people in the United States smoke. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says smoking also kills more than 440,000 people in the U.S. annually while costing the economy more than $193 billion each year in lost productivity and health care expenditures. And it says secondhand smoke costs -- from healthcare expenditures as well as illness and premature death -- amount to another $10 billion.
Analysts say those statistics, along with the ACA penalties, are causing the insurance industry to look even closer at smokers.
"If you are an insurer and there is a group of smokers you don't want in your pool, the ones you really don't want are the ones who have been smoking for 20 or 30 years," Karen Pollitz, insurance market expert with the Kaiser Family Foundation, told AP. "You would have the flexibility to discourage them."
But there is optimism the ACA measures could also help more smokers kick the habit. The CDC says more than two-thirds of all smokers want to quit completely. And the American Lung Association notes all new private insurance plans under the ACA must cover treatments to help smokers quit smoking.
And as the Washington Post’s Wonkblog points out,, ACA wouldn’t allow insurers to apply the full penalty against a smoker enrolled in a quit-smoking program.
"We don't want to create barriers for people to get health care coverage," California state Assemblyman Richard Pan told AP. "We want people who are smoking to get smoking cessation treatment.”
More on moneyNOW
Obamacare is starting to show its true colors; being that it's also apparently a manipulative tool for whatever agenda our government wishes to pursue, it now has a finacial the means by which to impose anything it wants upon us.
Moreover, weren't the excessive sales taxes already being imposed upon smokers suppose to take care of those costs?
What's next, drugs, alcohol, the type of work you do, where you live (Chicago), your political affiliation.
Welcome socialism; good-bye free market, the Obama tail is starting to wag the US dog!
To be honest...would would be obligated to actually inform an insurance company if we smoke or not?
So let me get this right , I walk into my doctors office and am handed a pamplet (hippa laws), Since theres a waiting peroid of atleast 45 min I decide to browse through>>>>>>My doctor asks me tons of personal questions and then informs me that he needs to inform my insurance company that I smoke?
He may as call them and tell them that im bi polar too and pms tends to make me a little bitchy so please inform my car insurance company that if you cut me off , I may unintentionally flip you the bird, and oh while youre at it please inform those around me that its possible due to tax increases dinner may be late.......a fox can steal youre turkeys, a bear can **** in the woods, and now we have spent billions of dollars to keep people in jail for minimal amounts of marjuana, but now hunny its ok ....
for many Americans. The Americans With No Abilities Act
(AWNAA) is being hailed as a major legislative goal by advocates of the
millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition.
"Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive
necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society," said
California Sen. Barbara Boxer. "We can no longer stand by and allow People
of Inability (POI) to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation,
employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of
workers, simply because they have some idea of what they are doing."
In a Capitol Hill press conference, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pointed to the success of the U.S. Postal
Service, which has a long-standing policy of providing opportunity without
regard to performance. Approximately 74 percent of postal employees lack any
job skills, making this agency the single largest U.S. employer of Persons
With No Ability.
Private-sector industries with good records of non-discrimination against
the inept include retail sales (72 percent), the airline industry (68
percent), and home-improvement warehouse stores (65 percent). At the state
government level, the Department of Motor Vehicles also has an excellent
record of hiring Persons with No Ability (63 percent).
Under the Americans With No Abilities Act, more than 25 million mid-level
positions will be created, with important-sounding titles but little real
responsibility, thus providing an illusory sense of purpose and performance.
Mandatory non-performance-based raises and promotions will be given to
guarantee upward mobility for even the most unremarkable employees.
The legislation provides substantial tax breaks to corporations that promote
a significant number of Persons of Inability (POI) into middle-management
positions, and give a tax credit to small and medium-sized businesses that
agree to hire one clueless worker for every two talented hires.
Finally, the Americans With No Abilities Act contains tough new measures to
make it more difficult to discriminate against the non-abled, banning, for
example, discriminatory interview questions such as, "Do you have any skills
or experience that relate to this job?"
"As a non-abled person, I can't be expected to keep up with people who have
something going for them," said Mary Lou Gertz, who lost her position as a
lug-nut twister at the GM plant in Flint, Mich., due to her inability to
remember righty tighty, lefty loosey. "This new law should be real good for
people like me. I finally have job security."
With the passage of this bill, Gertz and millions of other untalented
citizens will finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Said Sen. Dick Durbin: "As a senator with no abilities, I believe the same
privileges that elected officials enjoy ought to be extended to every
American with no abilities. It is our duty as lawmakers to provide each and
every American citizen, regardless of his or her inadequacy, with some sort
of space to take up in this great nation and a good salary for doing so."
A while back I read articles regarding some people who smoke do so because they are self-medicating a mental health problem-maybe something like a low grade depression rather than something higher. So what do we do with these people-other than hang them out to dry? As we have seen with the convesation surrounding Adam Lanza we have a long way to go with mental health issues.
On a similar note, what if you smoke because you are nervous and part of the reason you are nervous is you boss. Your boss has a deficit in understanding that he or she needs to adjust to the employee in order to get the most production out of the person-no change in result, but a change in how you get the result. How does a company adjust to being a cause of the smoking? That is something I would like to see.
DATA PROVIDERS
Copyright © 2013 Microsoft. All rights reserved.
Fundamental company data and historical chart data provided by Morningstar Inc. Real-time index quotes and delayed quotes supplied by Morningstar Inc. Quotes delayed by up to 15 minutes, except where indicated otherwise. Fund summary, fund performance and dividend data provided by Morningstar Inc. Analyst recommendations provided by Zacks Investment Research. StockScouter data provided by Verus Analytics. IPO data provided by Hoover's Inc. Index membership data provided by Morningstar Inc.
Trending NOW
- 1.men's wearhouse
- 2.spy
- 3.fdx
- 4.amrn
- 5.aeropostale
- 6.msft
- 7.vix
- 8.zero hedge
- 9.gld
- 10.nok
About moneyNOW
MoneyNOW brings users smart, original and entertaining takes on the latest business and investing topics that are buzzing on the Web.
RECENT POSTS
While caffeine unquestionably improves focus, it blocks the ability to let the mind wander and form original ideas.
- Western wildfires raise the question of who pays
- 'The Wolf of Wall Street' is set to prowl again
- What vintage aircraft fly on: Donations, enthusiasm
- Obamacare surprise: Young people want coverage
- Urban Outfitters pulls drug-themed gear
- Donald Trump rakes in millions selling name to world
- EA's Simpsons game triggers gun fans' ire
- George Zimmer vs. Men's Wearhouse over firing
- New $25,000 rifle is fully loaded -- and then some
MARKET UPDATE
[BRIEFING.COM] Equities ended on their lows with the S&P 500 down 1.4%.
The S&P entered today's session with a week-to-date gain of 1.5% as investors expected reassuring words from today's Federal Open Market Committee Statement.
Stocks traded with slim losses until this afternoon's FOMC Statement and subsequent comments from Chairman Bernanke sent equities and Treasuries to their lows while also providing a significant boost to the dollar.
Today's Statement was ... More
More Market News
TOP STOCKS
Plus, after much ado, Softbank is oh-so-close to acquiring Sprint.
MSN MONEY'S
- Shared
- Commented
- Viewed



