Investment in smoking cessation leads to improved health outcomes, lower health care costs and to more affordable health insurance premiums - According to a recent study by Leif Associates, Inc., a health care actuarial consulting firm.

In addition:

• Smoking adds approximately 7% to the total cost of health care.
• Smokers average 31% higher health care costs than nonsmokers.
• If a health plan had no smokers, estimated savings would be approximately $1.3 million per year per 10,000 smokers.
• Over a three-year period, expenditures for smoking cessation programs in the range of $100 to $300 per smoker attempting to quit should be fully offset by health care cost savings in a typical commercial population.
• Greater cost savings will likely occur within special populations such as pregnant women and persons with cardiac conditions.

The Surgeon General has indicated smokers who quit dramatically reduce the risk of illness. Research shows health care costs for smokers who quit decline over time, while health care costs of continuing smokers increase over time.

Research also shows quit rates improve when managed care organizations set guidelines and compensate their employees for treating tobacco dependence.

According to the CDC, smoking is the leading cause of preventable death each year in the United States, claiming more than 440,000 lives each year. That is more than the combined death rates for AIDS, drugs, alcohol, homicide, suicide and motor vehicle accidents. Smokers tend to incur more medical costs, see physicians more often, and be admitted to hospitals for longer periods than nonsmokers.

The economic impact of tobacco use is well documented and creates a compelling argument for smoking cessation - Direct medical costs associated with smoking are approximately $75 billion a year. Productivity and lost earnings, because of smoking-related disease and premature deaths, cost an additional $50 billion a year. It is estimated that Medicare will spend $800 billion over the next 20 years caring for people with smoking-related illnesses.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that $2.06 was spent on smoking-related medical care for every one of the 24 billion packs of cigarettes sold in 1993. A 1991 study of Medicaid payments showed that tobacco use accounted for 41 percent of substance abuse-related hospital days — the same amount accounted for by illicit drug use.
As an employer, you bear the cost burden of tobacco use among covered populations.

Here's why - Smokers have higher medical costs than non-smokers - an estimated $1,623 more per year. Turnover and absenteeism are higher for smokers than for non-smokers; Smokers have more accidents and injuries than non-smokers; Because of smoking breaks, non-smokers are more productive on the job than smokers.

There are few preventive health treatments that are more cost-effective than tobacco cessation. The cost per quality-adjusted life year saved (QALYS) of implementing the U.S. Public Health Service tobacco cessation Clinical Practice Guideline ranges from $1,108 to $4,524. In contrast, the cost per QALYS of annual mammography for women ages 40 to 49 is $61,744 and $23,335 for hypertension screening for 40-year old men.