Smokers in Palm Beach County School District to pay more for health coverage

Smokers working at the Palm Beach County School District, the largest employer in the county, will have to cough up a little more for their health insurance next year.

The district's roughly 21,000 employees have until Aug. 1 to sign a "tobacco affidavit" stating whether they smoke or use other tobacco products. Employees who either sign that they will still use tobacco after Aug. 1 or do not sign an affidavit at all will start paying a "tobacco surcharge" of at least $50 per month on their health insurance benefits starting Jan. 1, said Marilyn Boursiquot, the district's benefits manager.

District spokesman Nat Harrington said the district's insurance provider wants to increase every employee's insurance premiums next year.

By agreeing to several measures, such as the tobacco surcharge for smokers and requiring employees to get a physical by August, the district will be able to limit the amount of that increase, he said.


Classroom Teacher Association Executive Director Tony Hernandez said the union agreed to the tobacco surcharge for the district's roughly 12,000 teachers last year as a way to hold down all insurance premiums.

Boursiquot said the exact amount of the premium increase is still being negotiated. The amount of the surcharge might ultimately be higher than $50 as well by the time negotiations are finalized, she said.

If employees pay a $50-per-month surcharge, it will cost them $600 more per year for health insurance if they smoke.

Boursiquot said studies have shown that medical costs such as hospital stays are higher for people who use tobacco than those who do not, so the surcharge is directed toward those employees who use tobacco as an incentive to quit .

"We're working on modeling and changing behavior and choices," Boursiquot said.

The district has no plans to police employees to monitor whether those who sign the affidavit really do not use tobacco, Boursiquot said. But an employee who signs the form and is then found to be using tobacco would be lying on an insurance form, which Boursiquot said could be considered insurance fraud.

"We're working on the honor system here," she said.

Several smaller government agencies have either passed or considered similar policies penalizing tobacco users across Florida.

Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon made news in late 2009 when she instituted a policy that she would no longer hire any new employees who had regularly used tobacco in the previous 12 months, citing the higher health insurance costs of smokers.

Gannon's spokeswoman, Max Sonnenschein, said the office was unable to provide any estimates on how much the office has saved in health insurance costs since making the change.

The Indian Trail Improvement District, which governs infrastructure such as roads and drainage in the vast unincorporated area of The Acreage in western Palm Beach County, considered a similar ban on hiring new employees who smoke last November. But Kim Hutchison, the executive assistant to Indian Trail District Administrator Tanya Quickel, said the district's board never passed that tobacco hiring policy.

In Pensacola, the Escambia County School Board this month is slated to consider a ban on hiring employees who smoke.

The Palm Beach County School District has a written policy giving hiring preference to nonsmokers, but Boursiquot said the tobacco surcharge does not have any outright ban .

The district is also offering a wellness rewards program in which employees are asked to get a series of "biometric screening" tests such as cholesterol and body mass and blood work done and complete an online health assessment by Aug. 1.

Employees who do not complete the wellness rewards program also would pay about $600 more per year for insurance than employees who do complete it by Aug. 1.