Issues That Affect Health Care Delivery Essays

Insurance companies using experience-rating are allowed to charge tobacco users more than 1.5 times the premium rate of a non-tobacco user.3 Smokers under employment-based health insurance could face up to a 50% increase in their premiums if there is no effort to cease smoking behaviors.4 The ACA has three main goals for restricting surcharges to smokers; limit the effects of high cost tobacco users, encourage smoking cessation and discourage others from developing smoking habits.5 Using surcharges to control tobacco use establishes the precedence that smokers are held responsible for preventing behaviors that lead to negative health outcomes. Smokers should hold a degree of responsibility for their tobacco use but they should not bear the complete burden if they actively participate in programs that promote the cessation or reduction of smoking habits. By doing so they are demonstrating their willingness to change their unhealthy behaviors as well as their commitment to the collective common good of health care and societal

History has proven that government penalties, in the form of taxes, deter smoking. The 2000 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report, Reducing Tobacco Use, found that raising tobacco-product prices decreases the prevalence of tobacco use, and tobacco tax increases produce significant long-term improvements in health. From its review of existing research, the report concluded that raising tobacco taxes is one of the most effective tobacco prevention and control strategies (7). Along with price increases, mass-media campaigns and smoking bans have made cigarette smoking pretty much unacceptable in today’s society. “Today, approximately 22 percent of adults age twenty-two and older are smokers, compared with 33 percent in 1979” (Thorpe 1440). It is clear, from these examples, the use of penalties to deter the unhealthy behavior of smoking is a successful intervention.

The negative health effects of tobacco use have been well established. Tobacco use has been shown to cause acute and chronic respiratory disease, heart disease, many types of cancer, and is the leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality in the United States, causing an estimated 443,000 deaths per year (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2004). As the dangers of smoking have become better understood, reducing the number of people who smoke has become a major focus for those interested in public health. Efforts to restrict the advertisement and sale of tobacco, implement public smoking bans, and educate citizens through public service announcements have all had a sizeable effect on smoking rates in the U.S. In Fact, over

It is crucial that tobacco usage in the United States ends because tobacco not only negatively affects the user, but also the people indirectly exposed, and as a result, the economy. Tobacco appears to be very profitable as a consumable product to the nation because of its wide usage, but the costs needed to cover medical charges overshadow the profit. Tobacco usage also demands a high price of human lives. Both the farming and waste of tobacco products damage the environment. The ceasing of American tobacco use will positively affect the country by creating a safer environment, reducing tobacco related deaths and illnesses, and providing cleaner communities.

The three major issues with smoking is death, disease, and expensive medical expenses. “Smoking is the smoking is the single most preventable cause of death (Root Cause Analysis: America’s Smoking Epidemic, 2011).” The nation’s safety goal and objective consist of having a healthy and well population. Smoking causes 440, 000 premature deaths every year and at this time 8.6 million individuals suffer from smoking-associated illnesses. These consequences of smoking effects the nation’s safety objectives. In addition, smoking discharges more than 250 toxic chemicals and this impacts the environmental objectives. Annual reports reveal that productivity losses are caused by smoking is projected to be at $97.6 billion and this impacts the production objectives. After all, the medical care expenses of smoking, which total up to

“In the year of 2013, 17.8% of the people in the United States smoked cigarettes” (Gholipour). That is the lowest number we have ever seen, but there are still several people at risk of getting cancer, internal damage dealing with the heart, and physical damage that is visible to others. “Smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the U.S. This is nearly one in five deaths” (Health Effects of). If a smoker quits, his or her risks for these diseases and damages immediately decrease.

The amount of American smokers is at an alarmingly high rate. Each time a smoker has a cigarette their life expectancy lowers. There are many different ways to quit smoking, but many of these methods are difficult to continue doing or are more expensive then continuing to smoke. This needs to change if the nation is going to see a time where less smokers are around. Smoking effects more than the smokers themselves, so to increase the health of the entire nation smoking must be stopped.

In 2007, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report presented a blueprint for action to “reduce smoking so substantially that it is no longer a public health problem for our nation.” The two-pronged strategy for achieving this goal includes: 1) strengthening and fully implementing currently proven tobacco control measures; and 2) changing the regulatory landscape to permit policy innovations. Among the IOM recommendations is that each state should fund a comprehensive tobacco control program at the level that the CDC recommends.

The first reason that cigarette smoking should be banned in the United States is due to the monumental costs placed on the health care system, because of the health complications it creates. McBroom (1998) stated that “the cost of caring for people with health problems caused by cigarette smoking is about $72.7 billion per year”. This is obviously a massive amount of money that could be put to better use elsewhere, if cigarette smoking was banned. In addition to a large cost placed on health care services, employers pay a heavy price for employing smokers. Fox (2013) reported that “employee’s that smoke cost $6,000 a year more than their non-smoking counterparts”. It is reasonable to speculate that if employers did not have to pay this much extra for every smoking employee it hires, it could offer more pay or incentives to its other employees.

"Smokers have more diseases than nonsmokers”, in other words, “nonsmokers are healthier than smokers” (Leu & Schaub, 1983). If the population of people smoking decreases, there will be a large amount of savings in healthcare costs, however, only for a short duration of time. Within 15 years of the process (of smoking population decreasing), health care prices will increase dramatically to 7% higher for men and 4% higher for women (Barendregt, Bonneux & Van Der Maas). In the meantime, the article further explained the economic consequences and showed 2 points of view regarding the idea of having cheaper health care costs for smokers.

public health is the failure to take an environmental approach to modern day killers such as smoking (Northridge). Such environmental dilemmas are causing a domino effect in government. Economic Impact of exposure to secondhand smoke (2009) demonstrates the political and economic forces campaigning against the growing tobacco industry. Public health’s initiatives in incorporating education and health promotion campaigns have convinced many to resist the urge of smoking. Congress which still provides subsides to tobacco growers are examining evidence of high economic costs paid by government paid programs which include Medicaid and Medicare for the treatment of tobacco caused disease has forced government to question their previous assumption about the economic advantage of supporting the tobacco industry (Schneider,

Tobacco is the primary source of unnecessary sickness and death in the United States. Tobacco is the foundation that creates illness including emphysema, bronchitis, heart disease, pregnancy problems, and many other health difficulties. 16 million people have at least one disease caused by smoking. 20 million Americans have died because of smoking since 1964, including approximately 2.5 million deaths are caused by the exposure of secondhand smoke. These number shows that smoking is causing more unnecessary deaths and illness and slowly we need to remove smoking from distribution. (Tobaccos facts and figures) Studies have indicated that people who smoke are more likely to drink alcohol, and vice versa the odds of creating

Smoking is a dangerous and addictive habit; each year about 440,000 people perish in the United States due to tobacco smoking (Maugh). From those

Lastly, a substantial issue in America is the extreme expenditures that accompany the production and use of tobacco. In health care this attributes to an estimated $96 billion with additional costs of $97 billion per year due to the loss of productivity in the United States. (SPC library, Clinical therapeutics) The greatest causes of health related deaths in our country are diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, strokes, and hypertension. Smoking contributes to each one of these chronic problems. They are all devastating. Life insurance, health insurance, car insurance, home owners insurance all raise their prices for smokers, due to the potential risk of accidents and fires. Smoking can make all of your life aspects of insurance coverage almost unattainable. Many insurance companies raise premiums every year making it harder and harder for the average worker to cover costs. Due to averages of $8.1 billion in health costs, including more than $2 billion in Medicaid, the pharmaceutical companies and medical offices must raise their costs as well to stay afloat. Some companies are offering their employees a

Smoking has been a controversial topic ever since the 20th century. According to U.S Department of Health and Human, smoking has been recognized as the leading preventable cause of death in the United States in which 443,000 deaths are caused by intended active smoke and passive second-hand smoke each year. In addition, smokers are considered to be more likely to develop many diseases including coronary heart disease, respiratory disease, and lung cancer, and therefore tobacco use costs the country more than “$289 billion a year, including at least $133 billion in direct medical care for adults and more than $156 billion in lost productivity”.