Should private insurers be required to pay for medication that helps people quit smoking?

[n2doc]

Regence, Premera balk at covering quit-smoking drugs
By VANESSA HO
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Should private insurers be required to pay for medication that helps people quit smoking?

A bill (SB 5039) by state Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, would require insurance companies to cover at least two courses of tobacco-cessation treatments in a 12-month period, which would include counseling and over-the-counter and prescription drugs approved by the FDA.

Insurers already cover counseling for quitting smoking as a preventive benefit under health care reform. The bill would add such OTC products as patches, lozenges and gum, plus prescription-only medication such as nasal sprays and inhalers.

The bill has generated debate on whether the costs saved in reducing smoking are worth the predicted rise in premiums, at a time when many people can't afford health care.

more
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/434217_quitsmoking.html

[bluerum]

1. As well as methadone and safe injection clinics.

[Statistical]

2. I think so and most insurance companies likely wouldn't mind.

Here is the thing most insurance companies won't offer X because if they do, someone else won't and will undercut them on price. Company looked to save a couple dollars (x10,000 employees) picks cheaper plan.

However if they all are forced to then it becomes cost neutral and in the long run it is VERY good for insurance companies bottom line to have healthier people in the pool.

Premiums are rising anyways so blaming it on smoking OTC products is kinda silly. One would expect premiums to rise initially but the amount is relatively little. One in three Americans smoke. Say 20% of them will take advantage of that. So that is 6% of insurance pool. What does a years supply of smoking drugs costs. $300? (I honestly don't know). Lets say insurance company covers half of it and negotiates the price down to $200. Net-net average back of napkin premium increase is something like $6 per person per year.

In the future years if more people quit and stay of smoking health care costs should decline.

[Davis_X_Machina]

3. True, but...

...what about those un-helmeted gun-owners who smoke, purely as a matter of principle, while nursing in Olive Gardens?

[Statistical]

5. Well if this passes then maybe they will just be

un-helmeted gun-owners who nurse, purely as a matter of principle, in Olive Gardens. :)

[flamin lib]

6. Laughing too hard to type more than the subject line . . . .nt

[Ilsa]

4. If the medication works, then the insurer would be smart to offer to pay for it. nt

[Broderick]

8. Could think of it as prevention

and the benefits would likely outweigh the costs possibly.

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. Why not raise the cost of premiums for smokers to cover the cost of tobacco-cessation treatment?

[SoCalDem]

9. and let's also track who orders pizza & goes to donut shoppes

let's charge them more if they are overweight...heart attacks & diabetes run rampant in those environs, dontchaknow?

and why not charge more for people with children? children get taken to the doctor a LOT..

and why not charge more for people who play a sport.. I sure don't want MY premiums going up to pay for those shin-splints, sprained ankles, blown-out knees..

I mean really ! :eyes:






:sarcasm:------->just in case

[Freddie Stubbs]

19. Some insurers already are charging more for obese patients

[Kalyke]

13. Because smokers already pay more.

Duh.

[Freddie Stubbs]

18. How much more? Enough to pay for tobacco-cessation treatments

[dkofos]

10. You would think in the long run it would save them billions.

But I guess what they will say is DENIED, YOU SMOKED!!

[Bragi]

11. As medical costs, these are minuscule

The idea that including these costs would increase premiums doesn't make sense to me. A single medical test probably come in at many times what these OTC products cost.

[Kalyke]

12. If they're going to charge us more for being smokers, then yes, they should.

They should also pay for some (not all) diet aids.

[Nye Bevan]

14. No-brainer. How much does it cost to treat lung cancer and emphysema? (nt)

[Imagevision]

15. How many die from lung cancer yearly?

[Xithras]

16. There are some that don't?

Every insurance policy I've had for the past 20 years has covered smoking cessation programs. Those programs ultimately save the insurers money in the long run, so it would be STUPID for them NOT to cover them!

[WinkyDink]

17. If they're smart.

[leftstreet]

20. Better Question: Should there even BE private insurers? n/t