Smokers: Pay up

Keeping with the trend at most corporations, my employer now requires smokers to pay an extra $20 per month for health insurance. I'm not a smoker. I believe smoking is a personal decision and it has been proven to lead to increased health expenses, so I can understand where the increase in premiums is coming from.

I do have two concerns regarding this selective increase, though.

First, what kind of can of worms are we opening? As many different companies and business sectors develop more creative business models to increase revenues, what kind of convoluted mess will we be living in soon? Will health insurance companies start looking elsewhere to curb costs? For example, generally women have higher healthcare costs than men. Does this mean women will start having to pay more? How about once genetic testing really starts getting popular...do you have to pay more if according to heredity you are at a greater risk for heart disease?

Secondly, why smokers? There are lots of medical ills. Doing drugs, for example, is a personal decision and it leads to significant healthcare costs as well. Alcoholism is a disease that leads to increased healthcare expenses. But instead of charging alcoholics an increased premium, there are usually programs and classes that are sponsored to help alcoholics recover (which I think is a good idea).

With the extra $20, may be Blue Cross and Blue Shield can throw a few pennies to helping customers who smoke quit instead?

I'm too scared to ask the question, "Is it okay if I enjoy a cigar when we beat LSU?" Or perhaps I should expect to pay $20 extra that month...