Hypnotherapy For Smoking Cessation

HOW MUCH DOES SMOKING REALLY COST?
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The costs of smoking go beyond the health risks. Smoking imposes economic burdens on New Jersey’s healthcare industry and New Jersey smokers as well as all taxpayers in the State.

Cost to the Individual Smoker
Cigarettes cost about $6 a pack in New Jersey, and taxes make up a substantial part of the cost. New Jersey is one of a growing number of states that has raised cigarette taxes regularly. Raising the cost of a pack of cigarettes has been found to be an effective way to reduce smoking. Since 2004, New Jersey has implemented two separte tax increases on cigarettes, raising the total tax to $2.57 1/2 per pack, the highest in the nation.65 Today, a pack-a-day smoker in New Jersey spends more than $2,200 a year on cigarettes. This is a substantial amount of money that smokers could use for other purposes.

However, the economic cost to smokers is not just the price of the cigarettes. Smokers need to add to the equation the higher healthcare expenses that they incur. As noted in the last section, smokers generally have more health problems than nonsmokers even if they do not have a major tobacco-related disease. As the Surgeon General reported, smokers get sick more often and have more doctor visits than nonsmokers, on average. Even for smokers with a good insurance plan, the co-payments add up. Smokers also have more sick days, and for those who work for hourly wages and do not get paid sick days, this means lost income. For smokers with tobacco-related chronic health conditions, these costs multiply.

Aggregate Medical Costs
While the cost of smoking is high for the individual smoker, the aggregate costs nationally and locally for healthcare are in the billions of dollars. According to the CDC estimates for 2002, $2.48 billion is spent annually in New Jersey alone for the direct medical costs of treating tobacco-related illnesses, including outpatient care, hospital care, prescription and nonprescription drugs, home health care, and other products related to health care.66 The real healthcare costs are likely to be much higher because the 2002 estimate does not include the new conditions that the Surgeon General added to the list of tobacco-related illnesses in 2004. Some of these costs are borne by individuals as out-of-pocket expenses for medical care or drugs. Other costs are paid by insurers, which raise insurance premiums for all New Jerseyans. In addition, other costs are born by New Jersey taxpayers. The CDC estimates that treating smoking-related illnesses represents 14 percent of all costs of the Medicaid program, which is supported with state and federal funds.

The CDC estimates that each adult smoker costs his or her employer $1,623 in excess medical expenditures.67 Studies cited in the 2004 Surgeon General’s report found that smokers are 15 percent more likely than nonsmokers to visit doctors or clinics and 10 percent more likely to be hospitalized.68 In addition, female smokers incur an additional $17,500 more in lifetime medical expenses than female nonsmokers, and male smokers incur an additional $15,800 in such expenses compared with male nonsmokers.69

Productivity Costs
The CDC estimates that New Jersey loses another $2.2 billion in costs associated with lost productivity as the result of the premature death of smokers.70 This estimate is low, as it does not include the impact of the newly identified smoking-related diseases. In addition, this estimate does not include the cost of lost work because of sick days, doctor visits and disability. This results in lost revenue for employers.

The 2004 Surgeon General’s report cited a number of studies demonstrating that smokers have higher rates of absenteeism than nonsmokers. One study cited in a CDC brief found that, on average, female smokers are absent two more days a year than female nonsmokers, and male smokers are absent four more days a year than their nonsmoking counterparts.71

Total Costs
Employers can estimate the additional costs and lost revenue generated by their employees who smoke through a cost model. The CDC estimates the total cost to employers for each smoking employee for both lost productivity and medical expenses is $3,856 a year.72 Approximately 17 percent of New Jersey adults smoke. Therefore, employers can multiply the number of their employees by 17 percent and multiply that product by $3,856 to find out the costs they bear because of employees who smoke. Using this model, if employers have 1,000 employees, the employers are incurring approximately $655,520 annually in additional costs, which can make a substantial impact on the company’s bottom line. As a result, it is in the best interest of the business bottom line for employers to encourage their employees to quit smoking.

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