Why Is Health Insurance Coverage for Tobacco Use Treatments So Important?
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.1 Men who smoke incur $15,8002 (in 2002 dollars) more in lifetime medical expenses and are absent from work 4 days more per year than men who do not smoke.3 Women who smoke incur $17,5002 (in 2002 dollars) more in lifetime medical expenses and are absent from work 2 days more each year than nonsmoking women.3 In 1999, each adult smoker cost employers $1,760 in lost productivity and $1,623 in excess medical expenditures.4 Smoking causes heart disease, stroke, multiple cancers, respiratory diseases, and other costly illnesses. Secondhand smoke causes lung disease and lung cancer.5,6 Smoking increases costly complications of pregnancy, such as pre-term delivery and low birth-weight infants.7 Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.8,9 Smokers who quit will, on average, live longer
