More companies are taking a hard line on their employees who smoke.

Some are charging more for health insurance. Others are refusing to hire smokers altogether.

Macy's is one of the companies cracking down on smokers. The department store chain is now adding a monthly surcharge of $35 to smokers' health insurance. Pepsico is doing it too, charging its smoking workforce $600 a year. Gannett tacks on $60 a month.

Two companies refuse to hire smokers at all. Union Pacific and Scott's Miracle-Gro will not hire any smokers.

With rising health care costs, many employers simply feel it's too expensive to cover health benefits for smokers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking costs the U.S. more than $193 billion a year ($97 billion in lost productivity and $96 billion in health care costs). Secondhand smoke costs an estimated $10 billion annually in health care expenditures, morbidity and mortality.

Here in New York, smoking costs the state billions as well. This Blue Cross Blue Shield report finds tobacco's annual cost to New Yorkers was more than $20 billion ($6.9 billion in lost productivity from premature death, 3.9 billion in workplace productivity losses from absenteeism and net loss of productive work time and $9.8 billion in direct medical expenditures.)

New Yorkers' state and federal tax burden due to smoking-caused government expenditures totaled $889 per household in 2008.

There's no denying, states face a financial burden from smokers. And there are quite a few of them.

The CDC says nearly 21 percent of all adults in this country were smokers in 2009. That's 46.6 million people. Every day, about 3,450 young people between 12 and 17 years of age smoke their first cigarette. Each day, about 850 people younger than 18 years of age begin smoking on a daily basis along with about 2,200 adults 18 years of age or older.

The CDC says about 70 percent of smokers want to quit.

But who should pay for those who can't kick the habit or who don't want to? While there have been recent laws put in place to restrict where you can smoke, no one can force you not to smoke at all. But if people decide to light up, putting themselves at risk for a variety of illnesses, should they pay more for health insurance? Should companies have the right to refuse you employment because it simply costs them too much to insure you?

Do you think this is unfair to smokers? Does it amount to discrimination? Or are employers doing what they need to in order to cover health care costs? Will this make people more likely to be "closet" smokers? Does your company add a surcharge for smokers? Have you ever been refused employment because you smoke? Should companies have the right to do it? Leave your thoughts below.

This is today's Facebook Story of the Day. To help pick the story of the day, click here.