For what the price of Health Care is today here in America there are many countries in the world that have a healthcare plan for everyone at half the cost. There are health issue associated with those folks as well. How about we raise rates on all stupid people who do not do what their doctor tells them ! The increased tobacco excise taxes are also filling up government coffers to the tune of an estimated $8 billion each year. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Think of the savings in paperwork. Most insurance plans cover smoking-cessation programs. for charging me more for healthcare. Healthy Reader tired of making excuses for my fellow Lazy Americans. Copyright 2023 Insure.com. Good question. How about diabetics, cancer surviors, the list is endless. Customer Service. While the intent behind his call is well-intended, it is based on a flawed premise. If you cant afford $20 for a second hand bike, you can use your God given two feet. As for a flat tax, I mean fat tax, ask New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. A recent survey found that 2 out of 3 Australians believed that smokers and people with other unhealthy habits should pay more for their health cover. After a string of violent crimes involving mentally ill people who are homeless, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a plan for police and emergency medical workers to involuntarily remove people with severe mental illness from the streets and bring them to hospitals for psychiatric evaluation. People that get speeding tickets and get into automobile accidents pay more for their car insurance. cy from arlington, va. Higher insurance premiums price smokers out of insurance markets. We should not discourage smokers from getting insurance. If you don't follow their instructions, then your premiums should go way up. If they spend more for health insurance, maybe they won't have enough funds for cigarettes or junk food!! 1 cause of preventable disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Another thing to keep in mind: although smoking does not affect your health insurance premiums at the moment, it is possible that the rules could change in future. Futhermore, how can anyone say this would hurt poor folks when ciggarettes are $6 per pack, just 1 pack a day is $180 a month they could use for better food or a gym membership. Smoking clearly impacts health care costs and may legitimately affect premium rates, but are there pitfalls and dangers in imposing premium differentials? Its also unclear what happens if you complete a required smoking cessation program at work but do not quit. I applaud the fantastic efforts of Michelle Obama in this regard as we strive to make healthier foods and exercise a part of our daily routine for children. Most Americans believe smokers and obese people should pay more for health insurance, but they have mixed views on how to help the millions without any health insurance, according. It is all propaganda, Jack. Those who profit from the illness of others have convinced the media that their claims are legitimate, that their goals are lofty, that their aim is health (!!! Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Information about your device and internet connection, like your IP address, Browsing and search activity while using Yahoo websites and apps. Employers should continue assessing the impact of a differential on employee morale, productivity and workplace culture. Absolutely! There are several objections to this argument. You get what you reward! Othersrebutted that suntanning, eating junk food and drinking alcohol also count as voluntary bad habits that can negatively impact on health. However, there is a potential snowball effect that could wind up with young, healthy people paying peanuts, and elderly people being hit with huge bills for health cover. There, I saw firsthand the incredibly high rate of smoking in a population that was mostly hidden from me in my everyday life. The opinions expressed here are those of the authors, not The Hastings Center. In The Cure for Politicized Pediatric Gender Care, Moti Gorin argues that a U.S.-based systematic review, conducted by a trusted major medical organization such as the National Institutes of Health or the National Academy of Medicine, is needed to develop consistent standards for pediatric gender care. when they need their Health Insurance". We, AOL, are part of the Yahoo family of brands. Once implemented, the impact of the differential should be monitored to determine if it results in a disparate impact on employees in protected groups such as minorities and specific ethnicities. yu hve people tht are nt big n hve mre medical problems than them.as for smoker yu no they read the warning n America is stubborn abt taken advice. Oh cool! If we begin to separate people because of diseases, it might begin to punish people with costly diseases which they could not have prevented like Type one diabetes, Parkinson's, most cancers etc. the reward is no more than 20 percent of the total premium; the program is reasonably designed to promote health and prevent disease; eligible employees must be given an opportunity to qualify for the reward at least once per year; and. I have no sympathy for them whatsoever. As a fat person who hasn't lost a pound since August 5th, there's more to it. Pepperell, MA. Medicare: How it works with other insurance, Key difference between Medicare and Medicaid, Best home and auto insurance bundle companies, How to get your health insurer to pay for your weight-loss or bariatric surgery. Smoking causes alot of problems not only for the smoker, but for the people around. Action that smokers and fat people take is costing Health Care. ET to see if Jack reads your answer on the air. What famous person essentially cancelled themselves Press J to jump to the feed. Not all products available from our partners are compared and not all products are available to all customers. Become part of a like-minded community. What is a qualifying life event for special enrollment? Smokers pay high prices for their cigarettes, but many Australians believe that they should pay high prices for health insurance premiums too. Of course, lowering taxes on the rich, which is essentially stealing money from the next generation, means you're a conservative capitalist. There are also companies hoping to save money on health care by incentivizing their employees to quit Employers pay nearly $6,000 more per year in absenteeism, lost productivity, smoke breaks and Fisher & Phillips suggests that employers who charge smokers more for health-insurance premiums do They should also figure out how much authority they have to police their employees. That is why we are $13 trillion in debt nobody wants to be responsible. Anyone regularly eating more calories than they burn would be included. Taking up smoking cessation programs by insurers lowers health insurance premiums for smokers. In the case of weight gain I'm not so sure that can all be attributed to bad behavior. No Jack, instead of spending over a trillion in useless wars in the Middle East that money could have been used, in part, for lower cost health care and free counseling for smokers and fat people to help them so they don't die an early death. The fact for both of these groups is that their problems are self induced. You'll be able to breathe better. How much is that costing us ? The penalty for smoking will depend on where you live or work. Well, it sounds like a good idea but what yard stick would be used to determined to measure fatness or does smoking medical weed count. This stuff is expensive, and I personally don't want to pay for John Doe's chemotherapy when he has smoked for 50 years. While smokers pay much higher premiums for life cover, they generally do not pay more for health cover. If you do this let's include ALL the circumstances that can shorten life or cause one to need health care. There are excellent intentions behind this policy smoking is the number one preventable cause of death and smokers disproportionately incur health care costs due to the debilitating diseases that result from the habit. This objection is not very persuasive, however, because financial penalties do not significantly limit personal freedom. Once you start separating the herd you'll need to take out sky divers, surfers, race car drivers, anorexics, clumsy people, etc., etc., etc. Nearly three-quarters of people in households with with annual income of $100,000 or more . Smokers should be allowed to make lifestyle choices free from coercion from employers, insurers, or the government. Employers and insurers should carefully consider the implications of such policies before they adopt them. Also, smokers miss 6.16 days of work per year compared to non-smokers' 3.86 days, and four ten-minute smoke breaks equate to . The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. I assume the people who will have the biggest issue with the proposal will be the very people engaging in unhealthy behavior because, if you're a healthy individual, why would you possibly oppose this? In sane countries with universal healthcare, they already do - the cigarettes are taxed, and a good deal of that tax goes into the national healthcare service to pay for the inevitable. Health care is a basic human right and that right is not negated by smoking or overeating. A growing number of employers are starting to apply surcharges for smokers, says Lisa Weston, director of wellness promotion for Bagnall, a member of United Benefits Advisors, in Phoenix. Why would anybody else have to pay for my poor choices? RELATED:Sitting is the new smoking. Shame on you! I think our government should ban smoking. Fat people, who are smokers, should pay double. Its all about personal responsibility..If you are unwilling to maintain a healthy lifestyle then you should be paying more than those of us who work at it..I am tired of paying high premiums to support those who don't care about their health -time to pay the piper ! But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. If the answer is a choice between free behavior modification/education and wasting money on junk food, and they choose to waste money, this will decrease the money for waste, and encourage adopting behavior to save that money. Poor people can afford this expensive health hazard luxury? I am sorry but if you are overweight or a tobacco user you are going to incur a greater risk and have a greater chance of needing insurance to cover costs. If we start down this road than the next thing it would be, anyone with a history of cancer or any other known health problems in their genetic background, would have their Health Care canceled or would have to pay some ridiculous price. Experts say that smokers disproportionately have lower incomes, so that a premium surcharge will hit them especially hard. To avoid this unfortunate outcome, rate increases should be kept low enough that they do not lead smokers to forego health insurance. We're both fat, and we both smoke. Why not address the problem which is "lack of health care" or "the gross expense of health care" rather than take a view that would increase the expense? Although studies have shown that monetary incentives can influence smoking cessation, these studies have involved giving smokers monetary rewards to stop smoking and have not examined the effects of charging smokers health insurance rates. Sure. While it is important to encourage people to stop smoking, charging smokers higher insurance rates may not be a fair or effective method of achieving this goal. Besides they can take the money they save by adopting healthy habits and have more spending money. Why should I pay for other peoples bad choices. More profit. Yes, I think that people who smoke and are obese should pay more in health insurance premiums to offset the increasing costs of their eventual care once they become ill as a result of their unhealthy lifestyle. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Ralph- Corpus Christi, Texas. It has had significant effects on obesity throughj dirt control in schools, Tougher laws on DWI are certainly needed, too. Penalize them for bad choices and their habits will change. Information found on the CompareClub website is for general purposes only. I feel sorry for my fellow citizens who are not able to fight the system or extract themselves from it. Doctors charge whatever exorbitant price they want, and have NO incentive to make us well because then, theyd lose money. Just because someone is living large doesn't mean that it is by choice nor unhealthy. But such surcharges are misguided. Studies have shown thatmonetary incentivescan significantly increase smoking cessation. SMoking, excessive drinking, over eating should be the responsiblity of the person who practices these activiites. If your home is large, on a beach, in an earthquake or hurricane zone you pay more. Why should we pay for other people's liabilities? Increasingly, companies are answering yes, and asking smokers to pay higher health insurance premiums than their non-smoking colleaguesor even not hiring them altogether. Besides, if you make obese people a political issue you will lose at the ballot box because most of are obese. Of course, this is America, corporations are free to do anything they want and individuals pay all the freight. Specifically, they shouldnt have to pay to subsidize the healthcare costs of people who choose to smoke. Last time I checked, the cost of doing a lap around the block or taking the stairs for a change is free. Image via iStock, long list of serious and often life-threatening health impacts. When they get their habits under control then their premiums could also be lowered. The services have been available but no one took advantage. How would a company define "fat" or "smoker"? Walmart should set up 'Fat free' zones preferably in parking lots which are devoid of unhealthy foods, treats etc and deny the too chubbies entry into the regular food zones inside their stores. Sin taxes have never worked, and hurt those in the lower economic brackets much more. I would like to start this counter-debate by saying you see more drunk driving deaths than smoker deaths because news reporters report car accidents, not cancer Smoking increases health risks and should be banned in public places. Open a newChase Private ClientChecking account and get a $2000 bonus! A massive wave of Covid infections has begun now that China has ended much of its zero Covid policy. thank yu. Health insurers in Germany have conducted studies which have shown that smokers die younger than non-smokers. A disproportionate number of tobacco users, particularly smokers, are racial minorities and come from low-income and less-educated households, according to the American Cancer Society. Or are light-skinned and prone to sun burns? Sure, many would prefer to have juice and bottled water insetad of soda, organic fruits & vegetables instead of cookies and chips, and gym memberships instead of sitting behind a TV or video game console but many just cannot afford it.
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