ObamaCare slams smokers with sky-high premium costs, could backfire

ObamaCare slams smokers with sky-high premium costs, could backfire

Ok so this is on FoxNews, so if it is untrue or sensationalized I can understand. However if this is true, this is incredibly shady and unfair for smokers.

ObamaCare may have backfired in its goal of making smoking so expensive that users quit, public health experts say, as sky-high insurance premiums force smokers to drop coverage altogether and lose smoking cessation programs along with it.

What is it with progressives and their eternal war on smoking? Just leave it alone. I was happy now that they have to smoke outside so that the smoke has to dissipate into the air. I don't have to get smoked out of a room and while slightly inconvenienced by going outside, smokers are still able to happily partake in their vice. But Obamacare seems to want to let insurance companies charge as much as 50% more for smokers' policies. OUCH!

"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 addicts, alcoholics, or the obese -- all of whom represent higher-than-average medical costs -- smokers are the only such group with a pre-existing condition that ObamaCare penalizes. It allows insurance companies to charge smokers up to 50 percent more than non-smokers for an identical policy, depending on the state and any subsidies the person might qualify for.

For example, premiums for a 64-year-old non-smoker, according to the Kaiser Health Calculator, cost $9,000 a year for a standard "silver" insurance plan.

The same policy for a smoker could cost $13,600.

That is absurd and completely unfair. This is just straight up selective penalization. Now of these other unhealthy vices have surcharges attached to them, but smoking does. I'm not even a smoker and I find a problem with this.

One thing everyone overlooks is TAXES.
Suppose everyone quit….your taxes would skyrocket since smokers are subsidizing all manner of things.

reply to post by IAMTAT


According to the article it says that drug addicts don't have higher than average premiums, just tobacco smokers. Obama apparently singled out tobacco users and only tobacco users for these higher premiums.

Caver78
One thing everyone overlooks is TAXES.
Suppose everyone quit….your taxes would skyrocket since smokers are subsidizing all manner of things.

That, and a whole lot of govt subsidized tobacco farmers would be unemployed.

Krazysh0t
reply to post by IAMTAT

 

According to the article it says that drug addicts don't have higher than average premiums, just tobacco smokers. Obama apparently singled out tobacco users and only tobacco users for these higher premiums.

Big tobacco should have been more generous over the years toward liberal political campaigns.


Just think of the money they can strong-arm out of the sugar industry and related confection producers if they can get tobacco down on the ropes. Just think of the flow! A one dollar tax on fast food meals for the good of humanity. The possibilities are endless.

reply to post by Logarock


Shhhh! You're giving the NSA ideas, they may pass this onto their overlords.

I can only imagine someone forgot to tell Obama how many states depend upon smokers for require revenue, that if they all quit at once? The nation would have a whole new recession to go through.

I said it years ago when I was a smoker and I still say it now that I'm not. Raising taxes on a thing we want to end in society was pure lunacy. States and the Feds would (and did) become addicted to the money it brought quickly enough, putting them in the Catch-22 of being against a valid health hazard....yet NEEDING smokers and new ones to replace the old, as much as any Tobacco company ever did...and for the very same reason. Money. It's always the money.

So who forgot to explain basic taxonomics?

From the Kaiser Calculator

''In most states, insurers can charge a tobacco surcharge of up to 50% of your total premium before the tax credit. The tax credit cannot be applied to the tobacco surcharge.''

Nice how we were singled out?

reply to post by Caver78


Does this mean that the article on foxnews was confirmed? I was a little hesitant to post it since it was from FN. The fact that the 50% increase cannot be subsidized is even worse. If you smoke you HAVE to pay for your insurance, regardless of your income level. WOW!

Just one more lie in the long list of lies regarding Obamacare. It's the only pre-existing condition that has higher premiums and it seems obesity is more of a health problem than smoking. Cigarettes are addicting so they should be treated like an addictive drug.

If this is true, it's just adding one more asinine layer to the huge smelly pile of crap that is ObamaCare. I thought the reason my policy doubled and many others' have similar increases, was to distribute the cost. You know, we all have to have the policy to cover things we don't need to make it "affordable". If there is an exception for smoking, why not an exception for birth control, maternity, senior specific care needs, etc.....I know, this is all rhetorical, we know the answer.

reply to post by StoutBroux


Sorry, no

Obama care facts

This is right off the fact myth website, I can find more if you wish.

AWESOME!!! If you are going to intentionally give yourself cancer, then guess what? You should be uninsurable! Just die already. To complain about higher rates for smokers is pathetic. Smokers should consider themselves lucky that they can even get insurance. And I say this as a former smoker.

Smokers are just the first part of the pie. Soon they will go after those other people who don't who don't live a healthy lifestyle as per government's desire. It's all about the money, no doubt about it.

Peace

I will pay for obamy care over my cold dead body. I would rather have no insurance and be fined year after year...and smile back as not a cent leaves my wallet. I will close my accounts and deal in cash or bitcoins if need be but I refuse to play a broken game. The same as voting in this country...I can't even remember the last tax return I applied for before I went back to school. They make me do it now because of my loans but aside from that they can keep their broke ass s%#÷y system to themselves. Tar and feather them all as traitors to the people they claim to serve.

reply to post by LeatherNLace


Another awesome comment. (sarcasm)

How about incentives for smokers? You know, more helpful than harmful?
Oh wait. As another poster pointed out, they don't really want them to quit, because they make too much money in taxes off them.

reply to post by jam321

Smokers are just the first part of the pie. Soon they will go after those other people who don't who don't live a healthy lifestyle

Good! Can't wait. People who lead unhealthy lifestyles are the primary cause for the annual increase in insurance rates.

chiefsmom
reply to post by LeatherNLace

 

Another awesome comment. (sarcasm)

How about incentives for smokers? You know, more helpful than harmful?
Oh wait. As another poster pointed out, they don't really want them to quit, because they make too much money in taxes off them.

Incentives? Like what? Is better health not enough? want a handout to boot?