According to our doctor, there is a new law related to Obamacare - they must drug-test you

[Xithras]

59. True. The government doesn't require it. It simply allowed insurance companies to require it.

It's also worth mentioning that the requirements can be nullified at the state level. California, for instance, has laws that prohibit insurance companies from charging higher rates for smokers and other groups. The federal provision that permits this testing explicitly does NOT override state laws on the matter, so the practice will remain illegal here.

I really do question how widespread this will become. Whether or not the law allows insurers to do this kind of testing, the labs doing the tests will still need to be paid. The pricetag for doing annual nicotine and drug screenings on millions of Americans would be staggeringly large, and insurers aren't going to implement this unless they really think they can make money on it. A lot of money on it.

IMHO, it's far more likely that we'll see this sort of thing used in a targeted way, to check known former smokers and drug users for relapses and that sort of thing. I seriously doubt that insurers are going to pay to scan every insured American on the off chance that they might get some extra money out of it.