Obamacare Glitch could spell temporary relief for some Smokers

They huddle outside office buildings and they can’t satisfy their nicotine cravings by lighting up on planes and trains, but now smokers could be getting a break from an unlikely source. 

A glitch involving President Barack Obama’s health care law means smokers may get at least some relief next year from tobacco-use penalties that could have made their premiums unaffordable.

In yet another health care overhaul delay, the administration has quietly notified insurers that a computer system problem will limit penalties that the law says the companies may charge smokers. A fix will take at least a year. 

Older smokers are more likely to benefit from the glitch, experts say. But depending on how insurers respond to it, it’s also possible that younger smokers could wind up facing higher penalties than they otherwise would have.

Some see an emerging pattern of last-minute switches and delays as the administration scrambles to prepare the Oct. 1 launch of new health insurance markets for people who don’t have job-based insurance. Last week, the White House unexpectedly announced a one-year postponement of a major provision in the law that requires larger employers to offer coverage or face fines. 

The smokers’ glitch is “a temporary circumstance that in no way impacts our ability to open the marketplaces on Oct. 1,” Health and Human Services spokeswoman Joanne Peters said in a statement.

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