Being an employer and having just gone through re-evaluating and getting health insurance on our employees I have a current and different perspective on this situation.
On our universal health care application forms, they wanted to know if a person smoked and how much they smoked (at work or not). They were so nitpicky on things they even demanded the past 7 glucose test readings on an employee who has diet controled diabetes. Also, we have an employee who is trying to get disability because he had a heart attack besides his other ailments. They quoted us both ways, with him included or without and you would fall over to know the difference. Him being included raised the rates on employees in different classifications even. As it was, it is running us $80,000/year for 12 emloyees. Blue Cross/Blue Shield wanted just under $100,000 for the same group. Because we had to include the employee with the heart attack (who is still off on medical leave, but still on the employee rolls) our insurance ran us $10,800 more for everybody else!
Our insurance is a Point Of Service Plan with 100%/$10/$0 (100 percent paid for in-network care, $10 co-pay for Dr. visit and $0 deductible -- and the prescription plan is 3 tier $10/$30/$50. We do not make our employees contribute a single dime to the plan.
From the viewpoint of an employer, I can see how much money it would have saved me if my employees did not smoke or were in good health. Their lifestyle choices end up costing me hard currency out of my pocket. I was told that if our employees were able to take a pass their insurance physical (which includes drug, alcohol and tobacco testing, we would qualify for bottom tier rates. Needless to say -- we don't!!!