The Affordable Care Act will impose large insurance surcharges on tobacco users. But people in smoking-cessation programs will get a break.
Bruce Kennedy
MSN Money
1/28/2013
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…
The article continues at MSM Money.
H/T The Blaze, ‘Sodomy: We All Have to Pay’: Ann Coulter Uses Some Reverse Logic (and Gay Bathhouses) to Attack Bloomberg’s Proposals
Update: An editorial by Senator Ted Cruz, Here’s evidence of Obamacare’s failure
Three years after the Affordable Care Act passed, it’s proved to be neither affordable nor caring.
Insurance premiums are skyrocketing. Seniors are losing health care choices. Millions of Americans are being pushed into a struggling and ineffective Medicaid system. Americans are grappling with scores of new taxes. Employers are slashing jobs and hours to avoid complying with Obamacare requirements.
This isn’t what was promised. Americans were told if Obamacare was made law, they would be able to keep their health plans, taxes wouldn’t go up, premiums would go down, and more jobs would be created. But the law isn’t living up to its label. And it’s hurting working families, young people, poor minorities and seniors the most…
