If You Won’t Quit Smoking for Your Health, Will You Do it For Cash?

A new study of more than 800 General Electric workers across the United States finds that people were three times more likely to kick their smoking habit for at least six months if they were offered up to $750. Earlier studies, which offered smokers smaller sums of money — as little as $10 – to quit went up in smoke and failed to get people to stop.

So, if the rising cost of a pack of cigarettes, having to go outside in the cold and rain to light up, or the increased risk of developing deadly lung cancer aren’t enough to get you to stop smoking, how about some cold, hard cash?

Workers Paid to Snuff Out

The study of GE workers at 85 company facilities offered money to stop smoking was conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.

For the study, all workers in the study were given information about smoking-cessation programs. However, only half of the workers were paid $100 for completing one of the programs, $250 for actually quitting smoking, and $400 if they stayed off cigarettes for at least six months. All workers were then given saliva or urine tests to ensure that they were not smoking.

Researchers found that workers who were promised money were three times as likely to participate in a stop-smoking program compared to those who were not paid. Also, workers who were paid to stop smoking were more likely to initially quit and stay off cigarettes for longer. Among the workers who initially quit smoking, 14.7 percent who were paid were still not smoking six months later, compared to just five percent who stayed cigarette-free for the same length of time without the promise of cash.

Unpaid Stop-Smoking Programs Often Fail

Despite the fact that about 70 percent of smokers in the United States say they want to quit, programs designed to get people to stop smoking have a low success rate, researchers said. Most smoking-cessation programs only succeed in 2 to 3 percent of people, researchers said.

Tobacco is a leading killer in the United States and across the world, responsible for killing up to 438,000 Americans alone each year, according to the American Cancer Society.

Should Health Insurers or Employers Pay People to Quit Smoking?

The success of the recent study raises questions about whether insurance providers or employers should offer policyholders or employers cash for stopping smoking. By some estimates, an employee who does not smoke can save his employer on average $3,400 in increased productivity on the job and less time off for health-related issues.

Health insurers figure to save billions through reduced medical costs associated with smoking. So wouldn’t it make sense for companies and insurers to offer smokers a check for less than $1,000 if they stop? In these hard economic times, a little money might go a long way toward getting people to make the right choice when it comes to their health.

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