A 40-year old smoker from Michigan has an incentive to quit his vice - he will be insured if he does, according to Bloomberg Business Week.
Eric Jones is encouraged to put an end to his trips to the party store for cigarette tubes and tobacco, the roll-your-own supplies used to fill his pack-a-day-habit. He currently has no health insurance from his $9-per-hour-job an ice manufacturing plant in Lansing. Under the federal health care law, he's eligible for help from the government to buy insurance.
But in order for him to qualify, Jones has to quit smoking. A baseline insurance plan could cost Jones, who makes $22,000 working seasonally from February to November, $775 a year in premiums. Or he could pay no premiums in the cheapest plan, which has higher deductibles and copayments.
Yet if he keeps smoking, he could face an annual financial penalty ranging from $1,600 to $1,900 that will make coverage unaffordable. The numbers were estimated using the online Kaiser Health Reform Subsidy Calculator."I'd rather have health coverage than cigarettes, if it comes down to it," Jones said.
The law requires insurers to accept all applicants regardless of pre-existing medical problems. But it also allows them to charge smokers premiums that are up to 50 percent higher than those offered non-smokers - a way for insurers to ward off bad risks.
Jones is not without health problems. He said he should be taking medications for gout, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and severe acid reflux but instead just suffers through his conditions. "I can't afford them," he said. "So I just don't take them."
