Posted on 05/04/2014 5:09:27 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The Obama administration clarified rules Friday regarding plans covered under ObamaCare to help people quit smoking.
Group health plans and health insurance issuers under ObamaCare must provide free tobacco use screening and offer smokers at least two tobacco cessation attempts each year. Each attempt should also include four tobacco cessation counseling sessions and 90-day prescriptions for approved medication to help patients break the habit.
The clarifications were posted on the Department of Labor's website but were drawn up in collaboration with Health and Human Services, and the Treasury Department.
While ObamaCare requires most health plans to cover tobacco cessation services, implementing it has been inconsistent, according to the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network. Smokers have reported difficulties accessing treatments and having to pay for services that should have been free.
Earlier this year, the organization highlighted these problems and asked Health and Human Services to clarify tobacco cessation requirements.
“The Surgeon General’s report released earlier this year asserted that progress in tobacco control is not moving fast enough,” said Lauren Walens, ACSCAN spokesperson. “Today’s guidance should help accelerate that progress by resulting in more successful quit attempts, which will save lives.”
As chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) included provisions in ObamaCare requiring coverage of clinical preventive services including tobacco cessation treatments. However, he also wrote a letter to HHS last year asking the department to clarify tobacco cessation rules after it became apparent smokers couldn’t access the treatments.
“One of my goals in crafting the Affordable Care Act was to remove the barriers to healthy living,” he said. “The guidance …does just that by providing Americans with the access to proven tobacco cessation programs.
Curbing tobacco use has been an important part of President Obama’s signature healthcare law. A former smoker, the president has in the past acknowledged his struggles to kick the habit.
Oh, and it’s FREE!
All FREE! EVERY year!
FREE! Multiple visits, counseling sessions, drugs!
FREE!
FREE!
Bravoooo Kenyan!
Through Healthcare and Health he will control what we eat, smoke, drink, sleep, talk, say, businesses, sports .......
Totalirianizm, done by ineligible impostor, just amazing!
Gulags being readied as we sleep.
Why does the government insist on trying to get people to stop using a product it taxes so heavily? Smoke! It’s for the children!
And they claim that bozo is a former smoker.
Yeah right.
“ObamaCare must provide free tobacco use screening and offer smokers at least two tobacco cessation attempts each year.”
Just a stroke of the pen away from being mandatory for all
smokers. Then again in the same fashion forced homosexual experience could be made mandatory as well. Just think of
what they will do when the voters polls are synced with
Obamacare. Conservatives will have to sew a patch on their
clothes to be identified.
Seriously, Obamacare is all about total control.
“The Obama administration clarified rules Friday regarding plans covered under ObamaCare to help people quit smoking.
And, right there, in a nutshell, is the essence of all that is wrong with this POS. The notion that FEDGOV should be directing health insurance coverages should be like acid on the skin to every thinking American.
ACA was NEVER about healthcare. It was, and remains, all about CONTROL.
It’s time to take back the country. Dumping ACA would be a very good start.
Well the word hasn’t gotten to the VA yet at the federal level. My wife has coverage thru the CHAMPVA system and they do not cover cessation prescriptions. One of the most popular, chantix, is now about $900.00 out of pocket for the 12 week run.
Exactly what are the “ barriers” to healthy living senator Harkin?
I guess politicians always know what’s best for their subjects.
How'd I quit? $4 a pack was my limit.
I share your sentiment. Except for....is medical marijuana taxed? I could conceive of a federal plan that gave presciptions for that for "smoking cessation".
I'm beyond disgusted, with just about everything that's goint on.
but it’s fine for obama to smoke........just sayin’
Not sure about the cigarettes but it's believed he's still a pole smoker.
See there? Federal government knows best. Bow and obey your Master, the Federal Bureaucracy. In fact, bow three times a day.
If the programs are such proven successes, why do people need two paid attempts every year, year after year?
I’m not sure it hasn’t been scrubbed yet, but there used to be a website that had the Weather Underground Manifesto for perusal. It decreed that all who didn’t conform with the new (Socialist) Government would be sent to re-education camps in the Southwest. If after re-education people still didn’t ‘agree’, they were to be eliminated. Not joking.
How do we get certified as a tobacco healer? We could all provide the service to each other 2 times a year and catch a check!
What’s a tobacco healer?
Is it for wounded tobacco? tobacco that has a bug?
On a serious note, I think people are addicted to all the chemicals added to the natural tobacco leaf. The thought of stopping a chemical addiction with more chemicals seems counter productive.
February 24, 1999. Been there, done that.
The only way to stop smoking is to STOP! I you can’t stop, then you don’t want to bad enough. Similar to alcoholism.
Yep, best advice. And try again and again. Eventually, someone trying hard enough repeatedly will discover that not smoking feels much better than smoking. Focusing on relaxation much of the time is another key.
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