Firms to charge smokers, obese more for healthcare

[russianrocket]

Insight: Firms to charge smokers, obese more for healthcare | Reuters

Discuss. I've seen many arguments for and against it. I'm curious what the people on here think. Seeing how most people on here are both very into health, but also into personal freedom, while also a bit of government intervention.


I'll start off with this.

pilots, skydivers, electric utility workers, stuntmen, roofers, loggers, fishermen, etc. pay more for life insurance. No one ever says a thing about that.

Employers pay for life insurance. Everyone says socilized medicine is the best. But, they ration care and pick and choose, just as well. Shouldn't an employer, have a say in what they pay, and for what? An employee, has a choice of getting healthy, paying more, or finding a better job. Everyone compares this to government intervention, but it has nothing to do with government or the healthcare industry, and all to do with the costs incurred on the employer, as well as employees who are healthy and have to pay more, for their unhealthy counter parts.

Then, you also have things like alcohol and drug use, which don't seem to be part of this program. So why aren't they?

[Curtis2011]

Sounds fair enough to me.

[stanmrak]

As long as they stick to obvious hazards like tobacco, that's OK. However, things like this might lead to other measures that aren't warranted, like in Denmark where they're taxing food high in saturated fat on the assumption that saturated fat is bad for you.

[Winter Goddess]

Very much against. Charging extra for those things, by your employers, no less, erases the final border line between "work" and "personal life". Work places can very much demand that certain foods not be consumed on work grounds, that cigarettes will not be smoked during work hours, fine. But tell me what to do at home? When I'm not breaking the law? This is just using people's weakness in hard times, since getting up and going to find another job isn't easy right now.

[firenexx]

On the other hand, why should healthy employees pay higher premiums to cover the exorbitant financial toll of smoking and obesity.

Someone like me has an extremely low risk of needing expensive (not act-of-god or freak accident) care. Someone who is extremely obese and smokes like a chimney is almost guaranteed to need thousands upon thousands of dollars in hospital expenses later in life (or immediately.)

[scorpio1980]

Yes if you smoke or are obese you should pay extra for your insurance. Otherwise myself and others who choose to make healthier lifestyle choices are paying your way.

[russianrocket]

Originally Posted by Winter Goddess

Very much against. Charging extra for those things, by your employers, no less, erases the final border line between "work" and "personal life". Work places can very much demand that certain foods not be consumed on work grounds, that cigarettes will not be smoked during work hours, fine. But tell me what to do at home? When I'm not breaking the law? This is just using people's weakness in hard times, since getting up and going to find another job isn't easy right now.

Fine, then no health insurance paid by work if you are concerned with work getting to your personal life. buy your own like us un/self employed people have been doing for decades

[Winter Goddess]

Originally Posted by russianrocket

Fine, then no health insurance paid by work if you are concerned with work getting to your personal life. buy your own like us in/self employed people have been doing got decades

The way it works here, is that work's insurance covers you for what happens during or because of work. If you want insurance for your personal side of life, you do it on your own. It's also cheap to get the best insurance here, and unlike what I hear about the US' healthcare system, it's also quite effective. The concept of your work place needing to pay for your insurance when you're screwing up your personal life sounds ridiculous to me.