Will the family get refunded if their fat smoking father drops dead without lingering for a decade or so with non-smoking low fat diseases like arthritis or dementia? That's their problem! I believe that working people wether smokers, fat, or just plain ill, should NOT be charged more for health insurance, while individuals that do not work at all get 100% coverage. It's only logical, but in liberal politics logic doesn't prevail. People should pay extra for these procliviites. We need a socialized medicine system like the rest of the modern world. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. yes. However, I don't think there should be a set fee. We do the same for car insurance and why not for health insurance. People are already having to pay to much, and if you already have something such as diabetes you pay more.All I see is greed and another way to make people pay. *Average savings based off 25,311 customers during 2020, **Average savings based on 111,658 policies sold Jan 2017 - Nov 2021. Good Question! Hi Jack. Insurance comp. If higher insurance premiums gets there attention I am all for it. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. The opinions expressed here are those of the authors, not The Hastings Center. r/AskReddit is the place to ask and answer thought-provoking questions. If those at a higher risk paid more for health cover, it would theoretically reduce the cost for other people. Or are light-skinned and prone to sun burns? and people might get healthier. I dropped my bad cholesterol and raised my good cholesterol by huge amounts (to very healthy) and dropped over 40 lbs. Smoking has nothing to do with genetics and people only can't stop smoking because they were foolish enough to start in the first place. My ex-doctor had 9 signs on the wall of his waiting room stating cash for service rendered and no Medicare accepted. An alternative might be to give those of us non-smokers and who are not obese a discount. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all, jack. execept for those fat people and smokers. "Tobacco use" is using any tobacco product an average of four or more times a week within the last six months. Jack: Should fat people and smokers pay more for healthcare insurance? The Affordable Care Act allows insurers to charge smokers up to 50% more than what nonsmokers pay for some health plans. Why should those who have healthy habits subsidise them? One rather obvious lifestyle choice having a direct and often staggering effect on employee health is smoking and the use of other tobacco products. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. If you use too much insulinyou'll gain weight (who ever you are). Should fat people and smokers pay more for healthcare insurance? Add to prior comment: Employers, however, have no business even asking these questions and companies should be banned from forcing them to. These include, but are not limited to: man buns and beards; whether jam or cream goes first on a scone; the colour of The Dress; and smoking. However, if rates are too low they may not provide a sufficient financial incentive to stop smoking. A related argument is that smoking often is not so much a matter of choice, but an addiction that began earlier in life. Smoking tobacco increases your risk of heart disease, lung disease, and other health problems. Most and least expensive trucks to insure, How to find out if someone has life insurance, Best health insurance for college students. Please click OK to accept. But rather into the pockets of the lobbyists that lobby for the tobacco companies. If we single out those addictive diseases such as smoking and over eating, then why not single out those who eat fast food, those who use alcohol or recreational drugs, and why not charge the poorest of our society more as proper nutrition and hygiene are often less available. August 24, 2021. People that get speeding tickets and get into automobile accidents pay more for their car insurance. Being a smoker, obese, unhealthy is a choice. They are using 25% more insurance, they should be paying 25% more! The potential unintended consequences of the Affordable Care Act are unsettling enough, but even without the ACA, employers have been stung by soaring increases in health insurance premiums. RELATED:Sitting is the new smoking. 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. Hey don't we export cigarettes and fast food franchises Shhhh! the more incentive for people, esp the young, to QUIT smoking the BETTER. We don't punish drug users or alcoholics by charging them more because of their chemical dependence so I dont see any sense in singling out fat people and Smokers for their bad habits. Sin taxes have never worked, and hurt those in the lower economic brackets much more. Yes, shame on us for enjoying our lives. Lets just stop this nonsense and enact a law that insurers, mortgage companies and oil companies can garnish our wages. Just take it and cut to the chase. Calling people Fat is akin to bullying which your network so fond of covering. Here are a few tips for quitting smoking: Find your why. In the case of weight gain I'm not so sure that can all be attributed to bad behavior. And its not guarenteed that all smokers will burden the health care system. And where would you draw the line and how would you adjust rates? In this atmosphere, employers must do what they can to control costs. After all they are more likely to have higher health care costs! How much do you think a video cassette player would sell for these days? The slim & trim one, or the one who's got a medium waistline that goes with their body / or height proportionate, or the 3 pack a day smoker ? they need to be taught a lesson. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Hospitals charge a kings ransom for a box of Kleenex. Early last year, the Federal Governments Commission of Auditproposedthat private health funds should be allowed to charge more to cover people who refused to take action onlifestyle factors or habits that could increase their health risk, including smoking or being overweight. First off, smokers and fat people should not be treated equally for one it would be hard to classify who's "fat" considering different body types and muscle/fat ratios, etc, and it may be harder for some to stay slim given their economic class and/or genes. One commenter mentioned there being an extra tax on cigarettes in certain countries that went towards their universal healthcare fund. Which company could go out of business tomorrow and it People with a porn addiction, how did you realize you had (Serious) What causes death more than people realize? Fat people and smokers definetly should pay more for their Health Insurance. Smokers can abstain from smoking if they wish to. Lower the rates on those that live heathier lifestyles and leave me the heck alone. 88% of smokers began smoking before age 18. Do you honestly think that the tax money that government recieves from cigarette sales is somehow going back to the lobbyists who were probably arguing and lobbying against taxes? Smoking causes alot of problems not only for the smoker, but for the people around. over- worriers, those who don't worry enough. Hell no. However, not everyone agrees that this should be the case. A study of 20,000 employees showed that smokers had more hospital visits per 1,000 (124 versus 76), had a longer average length of stay (6.5 versus 5 days) and made six more visits to health care facilities per year than non-smokers. One other aspect of having smokers on the workforce is cost. If Australia responded to popular demand and moved towards a risk-based system, smokers could find themselves facing higher premiums. This is a stupid idea. The national average premium paid by a smoker in our survey was $213 per month. Whether it's one day, one month, or one year, it's a cause for celebration. Regeneron CEO & CSO: The Real Healthcare Problem Is Bigger Than You Think, Pfizer CEO: How The Biopharmaceutical Industry Creates Value (And Jobs) For The U.S. Economy, Gradual Progress In Precision Non-Oncology, But Challenges Persist, Amid Executive Shuffle, Anthem Looks To Expand Health Services, 'Forest Bathing' Really May Be Good For Health, Study Finds, Not Fun In The Sun: Summer Infections From Animals, Insurers To Trump: Suspending Payments For 'High-Need Patients' Roils Market, CDC: Over 200 Ill From Parasite Outbreak, Del Monte Recalls Vegetable Trays. If I chose to remain fat by following an unhealthy lifestyle then I should pay the cost for the consequences. These folks just wants to get more money from other. Dont blame it on the sunshine, dont blame it on the moonlight, dont blame it on the good times, blame it on the Economy. You'll be able to breathe better. Well, if you really think smokers should pay more for health insurance, we should also charge more for the obese, particularly those with belly fat, and for those who get little or no exercise. I am a smoker for 14 years now and my answer to the question is; YES! Will they ask those with heart attacks, strokes, cancer, in the family history to pay more also, maybe they should ask those who come up with these senseless ideas to pay more just for being stupid. Jack Cafferty sounds off hourly on the Situation Room on the stories crossing his radar. But remember, smoking is more common among low-income populations, meaning those people have a harder time paying for insurance. Those that drink alcohol excessively?, those that engage in unprotected sex?, abuse prescricption drugs and painkillers? I dont buy the poor people cant afford to get healthy line because we are the only country in the world where the impoverished are obese. For overweight people, it depends on case by case! But in that set of a high premium group lets include heavy drinkers, druggies, risky life style adrenaline junkies and anyone who even has a habit of driving fast on public streets. Social engineering though tax policies never works. I excersize daily and I have a positive outlook on life. If they are lazy and indulge themselves with bad food and refuse to change that! Obesity? It seems unfair to those of us that take care of our health? Or, in this case a kick in the wallet. Which Studies Will be Practice Changing in Metastatic Breast Cancer? But this is not true. I don't necessarily see an issue with that, but I also don't know how it could reasonably be done. Well, the creators of the Affordable Care Act (or the ACA, a.k.a. YES! What's next then? Obamacare) recognize that it would be cruel to force people to buy insurance if such a purchase was out of their reach. If we want smokers to reimburse the rest of us for the cost of their habit, we should stick with tobacco taxes, a policy that reduces smoking rates without having any direct effect on peoples decisions to purchase health insurance. Yes. However, theres no evidence that higher health insurance premiums encourage people to quit, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation aimed at improving the health care system. By charging smokers higher health insurance rates, insurance companies can make people pay a price for the risks they take. Health care costs of smoking are expensive and smoking is reduced more to motivational determinants than to biological factors; the essay, therefore, recommends that smokers pay for their own health costs. 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. Prior to joining QuinStreet, she reported and edited articles on technology, lifestyle, education and government for magazines, websites and major newspapers, including the New York Daily News. It only takes a bicycle to drop as much weight as you want while spending less on supermarket junk food. It is affordable and available, people choosing not to purchase increase costs for everyone else as the providers must have money to cover their cost. 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. This is a green light for insurance companies to continue making their own rules. Charging smokers higher health insurance rates is popular and legal, but is it ethical? The cost of health cover has been steadily rising over the last several years, and Australians are getting frustrated. (As usual, check state and local laws to be sure.) Need a socialized medicine system like the rest of the modern world own rules years, and the pursuit happiness... This should be paying 25 % more use too much insulinyou 'll gain (... Folks just wants to get more money from other a cause for celebration us... ( who ever you are ) esp the young, to QUIT smoking the.... Daily and I have a positive outlook on life your risk of heart disease lung! Insurers to charge smokers up to 50 % more insurance, they should should smokers pay more for health insurance debate... Buy insurance if such a purchase was out of their reach why should those who healthy. This is a choice is ; yes am a smoker for 14 years now and my to. 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