The Obama administration has quietly notified healthcare insurers, who happen to be smokers that they may get a delay from tobacco-use penalties that could have made their premiums unaffordable, the Associated Press reported. A computer glitch is the cause of the postponement delay, and a fix will take at least a year to put in place.
The AP reported that older smokers are more likely to benefit from the glitch, even as it is also "possible that younger smokers could wind up facing higher penalties than they other would have."
"Because of a system limitation ... the system currently cannot process a premium for a 65-year-old smoker that is ... more than three times the premium of a 21-year-old smoker," the Health and Human Services Department document wrote on June 28.
Critics argue that there has been an emerging pattern of last minute switches or delays, as the Obama administration prepares its October 1 launch of new health insurance markets. People who do not have coverage on the job will be able to shop for private insurance, with tax credits to help pay premiums, the AP reported. Small business will have their own insurance markets.
"This was an administration that was telling us everything was under control," health care industry consultant Robert Laszewski said. "Everything was going to be fine. Suddenly this kind of stuff is cropping up every few days."
It was reported that the main reason for the glitch is part of another provision in the healthcare law that says insurers cannot charge older customers more than three times what they charge the youngest adults in the pool. "The government's computer system has been unable to accommodate the two. So younger smokers and older smokers must be charged the same penalty, or the system will kick it out," as reported by the AP.
Workers who are covered through job-based health plans would be able to avoid tobacco penalties by joining smoking cessation programs, since employer plans are operating under different rules, the AP also reported, adding that experts say that option is not guaranteed for smokers who are trying to purchase coverage on an individual basis.
