Rising cigarette rates and office or other workplace smoking prohibitions seem to be in vogue these days. And as if all that was not enough, smokers are now being asked to pay higher premiums for health insurance by their employers. A large number of companies have started asking their employees to pay a higher premium for their medical insurance. And this is being done with a view to reduce tobacco dependence and also health insurance costs for the company.
Gannett Co., American Financial Group Inc., PepsiCo Inc. and Northwest Airlines are just a few of the companies that are into introducing such bans and anti smoking rules.
Linda Cushman, who is a senior health care strategist with Hewitt Associates, which is a human resources consulting and services firm said that ever since health care costs started registering double digit growth, the companies began to introduce measures to share the cost with the employee.
She says that the practice of smoker penalties is becoming so popular that it will be part of her firm’s annual survey, which is done to study the healthcare issues in the workplace.
She also said that a survey that was conducted for around 950 employers last year showed that almost half used some form of incentive or penalty scheme in their health care plans.
She was quoted as saying that it is in the interest of the company to introduce such penalties. Most of the companies formulating such plans are those that share the health care costs with their employees. It can almost be seen to be a cost cutting measure.
It has been estimated by the Centers for disease Control and Prevention that almost 92 Billion dollars is lost per year as a result of smokers dying prematurely.
Gary Matthews, deputy administrator of the Alabama State Employees’ Insurance Board is of the opinion that since smoking is so expensive to the employer, the employee should share the burden of the health care costs.
Are they Incentives or penalties?
Many employers actually claim that the surcharges are more of an incentive than a penalty, but a lot of employees have been irked by their actions. There are some employers who have taken even stronger measures. Like Weyco Inc., an Okemos, Mich.-based medical benefits administrator which fires employees who smoke even if it is in their private life.
Jim Wendling, a 45-year-old employee for Cincinnati-based Kroger Co., sums it up by saying that a company should not have to tell its employees what to and what not to do when not at work.