Studies have shown that cigarette smoking is responsible for 89 percent of all lung cancer cases and 85 percent of all the deaths resulting from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder. These studies have further indicated that liver cirrhosis disease mainly caused by alcohol misuse was the 6th leading cause of death in the United States in 2013. Alcohol abuse costs the health care system $200 billion every year. The cost of health care programs for people who smoke cigarettes is over $70 billion annually. Tobacco smokers use about 27 percent more health care services than those people who do not smoke. The health care service costs associated with obesity have surpassed the $30 billion per year mark.
Ailments and disability that result from unhealthy habits like these cost an enormous amount of money not only to the health care providers but also to employers. Coronary heart disorders, for example, costs this company approximately $500,000 per year. In addition, according to statistics collected by the accounts department for this firm, every employee in the company pays $ 2500 per year for the health expenses incurred by smokers alone. As you can see, cigarette smoking has a negative health impact on everyone, whether or not she or he smokes. That $ 2500 annual expense comes out of the pockets of both smokers and nonsmokers mainly in the form of elevated health care and insurance costs.
As a company, we are scrambling to mitigate the staggering explosion cost of health care premiums. The American Medical Association just revealed recently that more than 45 cents of every US health care dollar is used in the treatment of diseases or disorders that arise from potentially changeable lifestyles. Twenty percent of US, largest employers are currently making smoking workers pay more health care premiums than nonsmokers.
As an economist and the president of this company, I foresee the only way to reducing the cost of health premiums would be to cut down the cost of health care. However, nothing in an exchange can slash down the cost of employees’ health care. As part of continuing effort to reduce the runaway cost of offering health care benefits to our employees, the organization through its management, guided by the cost-shifting principle, will increase health care premium costs by 10% to staffs who engage in unhealthy lifestyles such as smoking, failing to exercise and overeating with effect from June 1, 2014.
Thank you.
associated with obesity have surpassed the $ 30 billion per year mark.
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