{"id":24338,"date":"2022-09-26T12:36:24","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T12:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ldblifestylebenefits.com\/?p=24338"},"modified":"2023-07-28T22:43:51","modified_gmt":"2023-07-28T22:43:51","slug":"tobacco-surcharges-burn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ldblifestylebenefits.com\/index.php\/2022\/09\/26\/tobacco-surcharges-burn\/","title":{"rendered":"Tobacco Surcharges Burn"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<p class=\"postIntro\">It\u2019s that time of year for benefits enrollment, and many people have gotten materials outlining the next year\u2019s benefits. Some of you may notice a line item in your medical benefits page that reads \u201cTobacco Surcharge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By the terms of the Affordable Care Act, group health plans and self-insured employers can upcharge tobacco users up to 50% for their health insurance premiums. (Tobacco use in this case <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/nhis\/tobacco\/tobacco_glossary.htm\">includes smoking<\/a>, vaping, and chewing tobacco.) Why do some plans include this surcharge? It hasn\u2019t been a mystery for decades that tobacco use is bad for the human body. It is responsible for nearly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/tobacco-products\/public-health-education\/health-effects-tobacco-use\">half a million<\/a> deaths in the US each year and is the leading preventable cause of disease and death.<\/p>\n<p>Not only is tobacco use harmful and potentially fatal, it is expensive. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/tobacco-products\/public-health-education\/health-effects-tobacco-use\">CDC<\/a> estimates that smoking-related illness costs more than $300 billion dollars annually in the U.S., including both medical care and for lost productivity. Group health plans and employers include this surcharge both to help cover tobacco-related medical expenses and to encourage people to quit using tobacco products.<\/p>\n<p>However, if an employer plan implements a tobacco surcharge, it must also provide a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthaffairs.org\/doi\/10.1377\/hlthaff.2017.1062\">tobacco cessation program<\/a>. If you are a tobacco user and want to quit and to avoid the surcharge, you can sign up for a tobacco cessation program, or, in some cases, submit confirmation of being under a physician\u2019s care for tobacco or nicotine use to HR. To find out exactly what you need to do to avoid the surcharge, talk to your Human Resources Department.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theexprogram.com\/resources\/blog\/what-is-a-tobacco-surcharge-and-how-does-my-company-offer-one\/#:~:text=Under%20the%20Affordable%20Care%20Act,is%20called%20a%20tobacco%20surcharge.\">What is a Tobacco Surcharge and How Does My Company Offer One? (theexprogram.com)<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthmarkets.com\/content\/smoking-and-health-insurance\">What You Need to Know About Smoking and Health Insurance | HealthMarkets<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/tobacco\/data_statistics\/fact_sheets\/economics\/econ_facts\/index.htm#:~:text=Cost%20of%20Smoking%2DRelated%20Illness,%24300%20billion%20each%20year%2C%20including%3A&amp;text=More%20than%20%24225%20billion%20for,due%20to%20secondhand%20smoke%20exposure\">Economic Trends in Tobacco | Smoking &amp; Tobacco Use | CDC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] It\u2019s that time of year for benefits enrollment, and many people have gotten materials outlining the next year\u2019s benefits. Some of you may notice a line item in your medical benefits page that reads \u201cTobacco Surcharge.\u201d By the terms of the Affordable Care Act, group health plans and self-insured employers can upcharge tobacco users [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2022-november-en","category-benefit-spotlight-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldblifestylebenefits.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldblifestylebenefits.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldblifestylebenefits.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldblifestylebenefits.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldblifestylebenefits.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ldblifestylebenefits.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26975,"href":"https:\/\/ldblifestylebenefits.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24338\/revisions\/26975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldblifestylebenefits.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldblifestylebenefits.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldblifestylebenefits.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldblifestylebenefits.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}