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February 22, 2012
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Smoking and Your Healthcare Dollars |
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Health Care Costs Series, 3rd Edition
 Smoking & Your Health Care Dollars
Fewer Americans smoke every year. Public opinion is increasingly anti-smoking, and more importantly, more and more people understand the negative impact smoking can have on their health and well being.
And aside from the devastating effects smoking can have on your health, the costs from smoking do not stop there. Smoking tobacco affects health care costs, and those that smoke often have more health care claims, more frequent absences from work, and may pay higher premiums for health and life insurance than nonsmokers.
This edition of the Know Your Employee Benefits, Health Care Costs series discusses the financial impact smoking cigarettes can have on you and your employer.
Smokers in the Workforce
Approximately twenty percent of the workforce smokes some form of tobacco. Those that smoke are costly to their employers for a variety of reasons.
Smoking causes poor health, and health conditions lead to more health care claims, higher health care bills, and consequently higher insurance premiums for employers. Moreover, most employers pass at least some of these costs on to employees.
In addition, smokers tend to miss more work than nonsmokers do. Absenteeism costs you and your employer time and money due to lost productivity and low morale.
Smoking and Absenteeism
- People who smoke tend to be absent from work more often than those who do not.
- Employees who smoke cigarettes are absent fifty percent more often than nonsmokers, regardless of their age.
- Men who smoke two packs of cigarettes per day are absent nearly twice as often as those who never smoked are.
- Smokers miss 6.16 days of work each year than while nonsmokers only miss 3.86 days per year.
Smoking & Health Care Costs
- Research has shown that smoking increases health care costs considerably for employers and employees. Consider the following statistics.
- According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), smoking costs the nation about $167 billion dollars a year in health care costs.
- People who smoke one or more packs of cigarettes per day generate health care costs that are eighteen percent higher than those of nonsmokers.
- Heavy smokers are likely to submit health claims in excess of $5,000.
- Insuring Smokers
- Besides the direct costs of absenteeism and increased health care claims, the cost of insuring smokers is greater than the cost of insuring nonsmokers.
- Each employee who smokes costs his or her employer an average of an extra $45 per year in accidental injury and workers' compensation costs.
- In addition, the tables below and on the next page show how smoking affects health insurance premiums and life insurance discounts.
What Can You Do?
What can you do help reduce the effect of smoking on health care costs for you and your employer? It's pretty simple. If you don't smoke, don't start. If you do smoke, try to quit.
While quitting smoking can be difficult, refraining from it and other unhealthy habits will improve your overall health and wellbeing. And with improved health, your overall health care costs will be reduced, and your employer will save money in the long run as well.
Don't let your health care dollars go up in smoke!
For more information on how to become a wise health care consumer, and help you and your employer save money, look for the next edition of the Know Your Employee Benefits, Health Care Costs brochure series.
This brochure is for informational purposes only and is not intended to replace the advice of insurance professional.
Know Your Employee Benefits is written and produced for My Healthy Tools.
© Zywave, Inc.
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