Why Is Health Insurance Coverage for Tobacco Use Treatments So Important?

Paying  for tobacco use cessation treatments is the single most cost-effective  health insurance benefit for adults that can be provided to employees.

• Smoking is costly to employers both in terms of smoking-related medical expenses and lost productivity.
  • Ten percent of smokers alive today are living with a smoking-related illness.
  • Men who smoke incur $15,800 (in 2002 dollars) more in lifetime medical expenses and are absent from work 4 days more per year than men who do not smoke.
  • Women who smoke incur $17,500 (in 2002 dollars) more in lifetime medical expenses and are absent from work 2 days more each year than nonsmoking women.
  • In 1999, each adult smoker cost employers $1,760 in lost productivity and $1,623 in excess medical expenditures.
  • Smoking  causes heart disease, stroke, multiple cancers, respiratory diseases,  and other costly illnesses. Secondhand smoke causes lung disease and  lung cancer.
  • Smoking increases costly complications of pregnancy, such as pre-term delivery and low birth-weight infants.

• Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Smokers who quit will, on average, live longer and have fewer years living with disability.
• About 23% of American adults and 28% of teens smoke. More than 70% want to quit, but few succeed without help. Tobacco use treatment doubles quitting success rates.

Tags: Stop Smoking