Evidence Suggests That The ACA's Tobacco Surcharges Reduced Insurance Take-Up And Did Not Increase Smoking Cessation.

ABSTRACT: To account for tobacco users' excess health care costs and encourage cessation, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowed insurers to impose a surcharge on tobacco users' premiums for plans offered on the health insurance exchanges, or Marketplaces. Low-income tax credits for Marketplace coverage were based on premiums for non-tobacco users, which means that these credits did not offset any surcharge costs. Thus, this policy greatly increased out-of-pocket premiums for many tobacco users. Using data for 2011-14 from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we examined the effect of tobacco surcharges on insurance status and smoking cessation in the first year of the exchanges' implementation, among adults most likely to purchase insurance from them. Relative to smokers who faced no surc

SUBMITTER: Friedman AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5589079 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature