USG employees call on system to change rules for smoking fee

Employees of Georgia’s university system are automatically categorized as smokers through the system’s health insurance plan. If employees don’t opt out of that status, they’re charged an additional monthly fee. Employees who don’t smoke have to opt out every year to avoid the fee. The system automatically defaults them to “smoker” status each year.

Opting Out

Tom Hochschild is a sociology professor at Valdosta State University. He says when he began working for the university system ten years ago, he and his wife at the time made it clear they weren’t smokers.

“We sat down with the human resource person at Valdosta State University, and we were very careful going line by line what we wanted and had things explained to us,” he says.