Smokers’ Ranks Look Conspicuously Sparse In Obamacare

(By Phil Galewitz for Kaiser Health News)

Barred from restaurants, banned on airplanes and unwelcome in workplaces across America, smokers have become accustomed to hiding their habits. So it’s no surprise many may now also be denying their habit when they buy health coverage from the federal health law’s insurance exchanges.

Insurers — who can charge higher rates in most states to admitted smokers — are steamed.

They say the cheating that smokers do to escape tobacco surcharges on their monthly premiums means higher rates for everyone else.

Signs of smokers’ deceit:

— In Idaho, 17 percent of adults smoke regularly, a federal survey shows, but fewer than 3 percent who bought coverage this year on the state’s insurance exchange paid the tobacco surcharge. Read article here….

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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