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The
Business Case for a Comprehensive Plan Makes Sense
- According
to a recent study by Leif Associates, Inc., a healthcare actuarial
consulting firm, investment in smoking cessation will lead to improved
health outcomes, lower healthcare costs and more affordable health
insurance premiums. In addition:
- Smoking
adds approximately 7% to the total cost of healthcare.
- Smokers
average 31% higher healthcare 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 healthcare 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.
- Studies
indicate many smokers quit during or after costly healthcare treatment.
Meanwhile, the Surgeon General has indicated smokers who quit dramatically
reduce risk of illness. This demonstrates an opportunity for healthcare
providers to reduce healthcare expenses by treating tobacco addiction
before the patient has a serious illness. Research shows healthcare
costs for smokers who quit decline over time; healthcare costs of
continuing smokers increase over time.
- Research
shows quit rates improve when managed care organizations set guidelines
and compensate their employees for treating tobacco dependence.
- Smoking
is the leading cause of preventable death each year in the United
States, claiming more than 440,000 lives each year, including 7,350
in Wisconsin. That’s more than the combined death rates for
AIDS, drugs, alcohol, homicide, suicide and motor vehicle accidents,
according to the CDC. Smokers tend to incur more medical costs, see
physicians more often and be admitted to hospitals for longer periods
than nonsmokers.
- The Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) estimates the average annual healthcare costs
related to smoking in Wisconsin to be $1.5 billion. Wisconsin businesses
lose an additional $1.4 billion in worker productivity each year due
to sickness and premature death caused by smoking. All told, smoking
costs Wisconsin more than $3 billion a year.
- According to
the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services, the state
pays $375 million a year through Medicaid for illness caused by smoking,
or 14 percent of the state Medicaid budget.
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