Insurance Premiums For Smokers Backfire On Central Planners

Whatever happened to not discriminating against pre-existing conditions? That depends on what the central planners constitute a pre-existing condition. But the goal of ObamaCare to make smoking so expensive that users quit may just have backfire, with public health experts claiming the high insurance premiums force smokers to drop coverage “period” and lose smoking cessation programs along with it.

“Tobacco surcharges are not proven to help tobacco users quit and there are major concerns that they will prevent people from getting health care coverage,” the American Lung Association’s Jennifer Singleterry said.

The American Lung Association does support ObamaCare, along with the American Cancer Society, but both oppose the tobacco penalty because they believe it makes insurance premiums unaffordable for smokers.

“Charging tobacco users more in health insurance premiums, sometimes thousands of dollars more, studies have shown, will price smokers out of the market,” says Singleterry.

Unlike drug addiction, alcoholism, or obesity — all of which produce higher medical costs — smokers are the only such group with a pre-existing condition that ObamaCare penalizes. In fact, ObamaCare allows insurance companies to charge smokers up to 50 percent more than non-smokers for the same policy. But here’s the kicker: even if consumers qualify for subsidies, they cannot be used to pay down or off the ObamaCare smoker fee.

According to the Kaiser Health Calculator, insurance premiums for a 64-year-old non-smoker cost roughly $9,000 a year for a standard “silver” plan. Yet the same policy for a smoker would cost an outrageous $13,600.

“I can’t afford any insurance at that rate,” smoker Don Hampson said. “I thought that was what ObamaCare was about, to stop all this.”

So far, just 11 states stepped in to prevent the surcharge, but a majority have not. In the remaining states — which are disproportionately blue, because of the left’s sentiment on smoking — insurance providers will decide the surcharge.

Again, the surcharge’s adversely hurts low-income earners, who are far more likely to be smokers, since ObamaCare subsides cannot be used to offset the smokers’ penalty.

A study by nonpartisan Institute for Health Policy Solutions found some smokers could pay 33 percent of their income in health care premiums, though there are deductibles and co-pays left out of that figure, but well in excess of what ObamaCare considers “affordable” health care.

Below are 3 scenarios offered by the Health Policy Solutions study:

1. The premium for a young, non-smoker earning roughly the minimum wage will cost $708. The same policy for a smoker would cost $3,308, or up to 400 percent more.

2. Before subsidies, a non-smoker who is 59 or older would also pay $708 for a “silver” or mid-level policy. However, a smoker of the same age would pay $5,908.

3. In a worst-case scenario, an older couple who smokes could be “literally impoverished” by ObamaCare premiums, said the report. That couple could pay an $11,352 health care premium, or one-half their annual income of $23,000. By comparison, a non-smoking person over 59 years old would pay 90 percent less, or just $952 after federal subsidies.

“There are certainly cases where the insurance company is applying the maximum significant surcharge where someone could be paying a significant share of their income toward health insurance,” said Larry Levitt, a Kaiser Family Foundation senior adviser.

Thirty-four percent of the lowest-income Americans smoke, compared with only 13 percent of those earning $90,000 or more per year. Those who designed ObamaCare imposed the surcharge hoping it would convince users to quit — or price them out of the market. It also reflects the higher costs smokers present to insurers.

“There are competing goals here,” Levitt said. “There’s the goal of getting people insured and certainly the lower the cost of insurance, the more likely it is people will sign up. There’s also the goal of allowing insurance companies to recover their cost of covering certain kinds of people and the smoking surcharge is one way of doing that.”

However, some see smoking as an addiction, not a choice, and it is no different than any other pre-existing condition. Most state exchanges ask the question up front, “Are you a smoker?” Experts say users may try to lie, but insurers can file fraud charges if they learn a patient is lying.

Some smokers may dodge the ObamaCare smokers’ penalty in the first year of enrollment because of a computer “glitch” in the ObamaCare website, which accidentally charges older smokers the inaccurate amount. However, it isn’t the case in all states. Experts say that many millions of low-income Americans will simply not buy from the ObamaCare exchange and pay the opt-out fee.