Tipping the Scales? You May Be Paying Up.
August 22, 2008 by Liberty Kontranowski
Filed under Diets and Dieting, Health, Obesity, Weight Loss, Your Body
Bad news if you’re overweight and are employed by the state of Alabama. If you don’t ease up on your Southern-fried favorites and hit the gym a bit more, you’ll end up paying $25 a month for insurance that is otherwise free to the un-fat folk.
That’s right, in an unprecedented move to encourage state workers to slim down, Alabama will be the first state in the nation to charge overweight workers who don’t make the effort to lighten up.
This $25 insurance fee will join the already-in-place $24/month fee that ‘Bama employees are charged for smoking. The state says it’s seen some success in getting their workers to quit lighting up, so they reason this new fee will encourage thicker employees to skinny up. Alabama is, after all, ranked second in the nation for obesity.
So how do you feel about this bold move? Would you welcome a change like this in your state, or should one’s employer butt out? Let us know…
I’m conflicted. On the one hand, as a taxpayer and health insurance consumer (i.e., I pay for my health insurance premiums), my gut makes me feel as if I’m subsidizing ‘health sins’ on some level. On the other hand, where does this surcharging stop? smokers? drinkers? folks with certain chronic conditions or diseases?
Austin
http://drughealth.blogspot.com/
There’s a law in my state in which smokers have to pay a monthly fee to their insurance provider along with the normal premiums. Non-smokers have to sign a form to prove they do not smoke and they do not have the extra fee in their premiums. This is a way to prevent people from smoking (but really, is $25 going stop people who are paying that and much more per week to smoke?) which will lower the insurance provider’s cost in the long run because of lower medical bills due to smoking-related health problems. The overweight issue is just along the same lines as the smoker and non-smokers issue.