The Pima County Board of Supervisors today voted 4-1 to approve a health care premium surcharge on current employees who use tobacco or nicotine, a change that will take effect July 1. District 4 Supervisor Ray Carroll voted no.
The supervisors also voted to require employees who use tobacco or nicotine to enroll in and complete a tobacco cessation program of their choice within the 2015-16 fiscal year. Once an employee completes the cessation program, he or she will no longer be assessed a surcharge, regardless of tobacco/nicotine usage.
The surcharge will be $30 per pay period for the 2015-16 fiscal year, and increase by $10 per pay period each year until reaching a maximum of $60 per pay period. Employees who are tobacco/nicotine free will be eligible to receive a healthy lifestyle premium discount of $5 per pay period.
Tobacco users cost the county more in healthcare-related costs than any other category of employee, including obesity, and national research estimates that each tobacco-using employee accounts for approximately $5,800 in increased employer health expenses annually.
Approximately 32 percent of the county workforce of 7,200 full-time equivalents smokes or uses tobacco products, compared to a national average of 21 percent. Based on these numbers, Garcia estimates that tobacco use by county staff costs the county more than $10 million annually.
Before the vote, Pima County staff assured Supervisor Richard Elias, who frequently smokes on County grounds, that they would not be conducting sniff tests to see who is and who is not smoking.