should smokers pay more for health insurance debate

I don't think so. Since tax payer dollars fund that healthcare, it only seems fitting that people who smoke should pay more. Wal-Mart, which insures more than 1 million people, is one such company. And that, my friends, requires the much maligned bubaboo: Universal Healthcare. Yes, Jack, I think the insurance for smokers should be more expensive. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all, jack. execept for those fat people and smokers. ET to see if Jack reads your answer on the air. If they can afford to buy more food and/or boxes of cigarettes then they can afford more money for healthcare. Figure out how much you'll save. Advise upper management of the potential pitfalls, as well as the benefits of adopting differentials, including the costs of a wellness program. Anti-cancer groups and the tobacco industry have effectively joined forces to prevent some of the new insurance exchanges from implementing a surcharge for smokers. Smokers, along with the tobacco industry, should pay to cover healthcare costs associated with their bad habit. Are we going to ask them to shell out for my extra expenses? A massive wave of Covid infections has begun now that China has ended much of its zero Covid policy. There is no question that smoking increases health risks and those who don't smoke shouldn't have to bear the burden of those who choose this insidiious habit. Compare Club makes health insurance simple - it only takes a minute to get an estimate that fits your needs. Watch The Biggest Loser TV show and you will see that morbidly obese people can and do lose weight when they eat less and exercise more. The idea is to spread the risk through out your paying customers in the event that something happens an individual is not overwhelmed with costs. Genetic factors can also increase health risks, but genetic discrimination in employment and insurance is illegal in the U.S. and many countries. Anyone that drinks excessively. But I understand there are higher priorities, like spying on Americans by capturing their phone calls, e-mail, text messages and who knows what else for scrutiny by NSA, and invasive TSA searches and who knows what else? And harmful behaviors and habits that contribute directly to increased medical bills are a natural, and tempting, target. Don't they already pay more due the fact that they need more health care than a healthy person and therefore accumulate more medical bills than a healthy person? 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. Smokers should be allowed to make lifestyle choices free from coercion from employers, insurers, or the government. It was MY CHOICE to go and buy cigarettes as it was my choice to quit. For those of us who must struggle in our writing to convey with clarity the complicated ideas we are driven to share, Wills gift for off-the-cuff eloquence was awe-inspiring. Insurance is collective protection against risk. Smokers elect to smoke and know that they are harming themselves. Why would they stop there? When an uninsured smoker gets emergently sick, that means hospitals and clinicians dont get reimbursed, which forces them to pass those costs on to people with insurance. Hopefully these penalties will get these overindulgent people to quit their bad habits and lead healthier lives thus live longer. While it's true that smoking does cost the healthcare system a significant amount of money each year, it's also worth considering the extra taxes smokers are paying. Smokers and overweight people need to stand up and start being accountable for their actions and unhealthy life choices. Smoking and obesity is a free choice. Taking up smoking cessation programs by insurers lowers health insurance premiums for smokers. If we are to receive adequate healthcare in this very backward country, we must rein the medical industry in tightly. Get free updates delivered free to your inbox. No forward thinking piece of legislation intending to improve the health of this country could ignore tobacco use. Get fat on steroids from their asthama? On second thought, we should just give them all our money now and be done with it. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". Some large corporations are telling their employees if they smoke they will have to pay more for their health insurance. Yes. Many can only afford cheap hamburgers, bologna, potatoes, mac and cheese, and cheap frozen pizzas-Especially in the South where wages are generally lower. Everytime they have to payout for something, we should automatically charge everybody else with a similar condition twice as much. Ethics Consult: Potentially Hasten Baby's Death to Ease Suffering? Those are actually choices, and people making those choices should have to pay more, for health care, to keep the cost down for those of us who are more responsible. To avoid this unfortunate outcome, rate increases should be kept low enough that they do not lead smokers to forego health insurance. One colleague agreed with the majority of respondents, arguing, "Why should I have to pay the same amount as someone who chooses to voluntarily ingest poison?". It only takes a minute to see how much you could save. Everyone keeps complaining about the health care, but don't take efforts to eat correctly and they know they should! David B. Resnik, JD, Ph.D, is a bioethicist at the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences. Absolutely! Kytles practice also involves drafting affirmative action plans and he has represented employers in hundreds of affirmative action audits conducted by the OFCCP. And the fat cat CEO's should go on a compensation diet so that more of the money they collect in premiums goes to heath care. However if employees have been offered many options to get healthy and they are not taking them then they should be paying more for their health care. As a fat person who hasn't lost a pound since August 5th, there's more to it. The ABS found that smoking causes 80% of lung cancer deaths and 20% of overall cancer deaths. smokers get the ass end of every stick, even though people do way stupider things that risk their lives. Should the middle class continue to pay the taxes for the 1%? With statistics like that, the negative impact of smoking is hard to ignore. While the intent behind his call is well-intended, it is based on a flawed premise. In a recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine, Ezekiel Emanuel and colleagues clearly illustrate the relevance of ethical considerations to policy deliberations concerning public health emergencies. In the whole debate about rising health care costs we have been avoiding the issue of personal responsibility yes people who make an effort to live a healthy life should be rewarded with lower insurace premiums. People who play football since they're going to be brain damaged over time? Do you really think about these questions before you post? The most obviou and clearest cases of physical abuse by a person on themselves should cost the perpetrator. Why not if your bad habit increases your health care costs. which in fact may be caused by preventable environmental conditions. The increased tobacco excise taxes are also filling up government coffers to the tune of an estimated $8 billion each year. This is a long term problem that will take 50 years to correct in our society and it begins in the classroom when children our young with mandatory daily courses in health and physical education. 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. Smokers can abstain from smoking if they wish to. Yes Jack, this is what we need. There is no excuse other than they lack the will to eat less. To appreciate the solution, let me expand on the flaws in health insurance surcharges. 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. Absolutely! But is it worth the adde A guide to Overseas Health Cover (OVHC) Visa 600. How long has it been since you had your last cigarette? It has had significant effects on obesity throughj dirt control in schools, Tougher laws on DWI are certainly needed, too. Is any one of us perfect. Without a doubt they should be paying more. Increasingly, companies are answering yes, and asking smokers to pay higher health insurance premiums than their non-smoking colleaguesor even not hiring them altogether. It is believed that people who smoke are provided limited coverage or can be restricted when it comes to health insurance. In this guide, we'll explain how smoking affects your health cover, and what you can do to lower your costs. How about stupid people, they are always doing dumb things to get themselves hurt. The odds. Some of these forgoers pay a penalty, but many others dont. Most insurance plans cover smoking-cessation programs. I guess I am just thinking of people who are certainly hurting themselves and will one day end up needing care for their risky behavior if they don't die from something else first. While your question is to broad, my general response is yes; as do certain persons pay more for life, car, homeowners etc insurance. They absolutely should pay more. Hi Jack. Yes they should! Clearly, more research is needed on the relationship between financial incentives and smoking cessation. Lord knows this country needs both. Image via iStock, Improved life expectancy. Smoking causes alot of problems not only for the smoker, but for the people around. Why should people who make an effort to stay healthy be penalized when people who are willingly and knowingly partaking in detrimental activities pay the same amount. 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. Yes, I think they should be part of any risk pool their state has. I believe in following the Doctors instructions to the letter. This is called tough love; the firms are offering free services to help them improve their lifestyles. We should not discourage smokers from getting insurance. Charging people rates based on their personal risks protects insurance companies against moral hazard, people taking risks without bearing the consequences. Many studies have focused on smoking and its deleterious effects, not just upon ones health, but upon productivity. People have known for years that smoking causes a variety of health problems and, especially if these companies are offering programs to assist in quitting, there is no reason nowadays to still be partaking. 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. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. And, life insurance, too. Hate to be a bearer of bad tidings, but you have to put yourself in their shoes. Or a family history of colon cancer? He has a brain tumor. "let the Insurance companies charge anyone a penalty, 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 ! Frankly I am sick and tired of Insurance companies trying to justify reasons to gouge us further. A person with emphsema is a tremendous cost to the health care system and it is primarily caused by smoking. As a former smoker I firmly believe that people who engage in unhealthy and unsafe activities should pay more health care but then that only works if they have insurance. We are all dollar signs to them without faces or names just like they begin charging for baggage with the airlines they will never stop charging us as long as people need anything. Employers and insurers should carefully consider the implications of such policies before they adopt them. It doesn't matter how long or short they live. However, this smoking surcharge makes the crucial assumption that continuing to smoke is a choice. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Arkansas set the tobacco surcharge cap at 20 percent, Colorado at 15 percent and Kentucky at 40 percent. I guess intellectual consistency isn't our strong suit. We really need a complete national group single payer medical coverage for all. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". The fact for both of these groups is that their problems are self induced. No JackThat`s just wrong!!!! In the past few years, many employers have been trying to get workers to voluntarily improve their health to help bring down soaring insurance costs. I don't smoke and am about 10lbs overweight. Besides they can take the money they save by adopting healthy habits and have more spending money. So its only fair that people who live unhealthy lifestyles, which increase the costs to those of us who are more responsible, pay more for their choices too. Jack, glad you touched on a subject I feel so passionate about. Smokers pay high prices for their cigarettes, but many Australians believe that they should pay high prices for health insurance premiums too. Heres where the tobacco surcharge runs into problems. Now that's the question you need to be asking. As a person who is living large, I can tell you that I don't have high blood pressure, I don't have diabetes, my knees and back are fine. Healthy people should pay less. The same with booze, and other things that costs the country money to fix. There are health issue associated with those folks as well. Secondly fat people don't stay fat because they are starving. Employers have to clearly disclose the program and all its components. Drone Boats: Inside the U.S. Navys Latest Unmanned AI Tech, Watch: California Floods Leave Behind Washed Away Houses, Submerged Cars, Why the FTC Says Noncompete Clauses Are Hurting the Economy, Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Detained in Germany During Coal Mine Protest. Shouldn't my health insurance give me discounts for going to the gym and not smoking? Policies that are adopted should be fair and not undermine smokers access to health care. 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. Is that what we want for healthcare? prehaps they will be more motivated to change their behavior and adopt more healthy habits. If you use too much insulinyou'll gain weight (who ever you are). None surpassed Will. Since smokers tend to have significantly lower incomes than non-smokers, they could be especially vulnerable to increased health insurance costs. However having an insurance company be the judge is dangerous, could see after the fact scenarios of refusing to pay unless a person can prove they have never smoked. However, not everyone agrees that this should be the case. Obviously they have higher medical costs associated with the ills that come with smoking. Or you don't wear a helmet while riding a motorcycle or bicycle? Jack, I'm glad you brought that up. And while we're at it let's throw in really tall people because you never see any really old really tall people around; and drivers too, because automobile accidents kill more people than just about anything else, don't they? When you apply for health insurance, you are required to report whether or not you are a smoker. The basic concept of insurance is to spread risk. Their premums should be less and those in the high, $250,000 and up shouldpay a higher amount according to their income. Founded in 2004 byKevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the webs leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories. On top of that just tell me how to live my life too. If they can pay for their smoking, there is no way they can not pay for their additional cost of their own health care, if they can kill them selves with money why to be burden other people who lives healthy life style. There's more complex social issues at play for these health issues. Customer Service. Long or short they live a helmet while riding a motorcycle or bicycle to buy more food and/or boxes cigarettes..., too my choice to go and buy cigarettes as it was my choice to quit their bad and! Genetic discrimination in employment and insurance is to spread risk everyone agrees that this should be and! Second thought, we must rein the medical industry in tightly, along with the tobacco cap... 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