Will Schpero Co-Authors Paper on the Effect of the ACA’s Surcharge on Smokers

Will Schpero, ISPS Graduate Policy Fellow and PhD student at Yale’s School of Public Health, has co-authored a recently published paper in Health Affairs. The paper, “Evidence Suggests That The ACA’s Tobacco Surcharges Reduced Insurance Take-Up and Did Not Increase Smoking Cessation” finds that high surcharges on purchasing health insurance for smokers (some as much as 30-50% higher than non-smokers) resulted in lower rates of insurance enrollment and lower rates of smoking cessation.

The study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Professor Abigail Friedman was first author, and Professor Susan Busch was senior author. 

See Yale News story here. And the paper in Health Affairs can be accessed here.