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Location: Georgia, on the Florida line, right above Tallahassee
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Extra pounds may be costly for Ala. workers | ajc.com (http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/08/22/obesity_penalty.html - broken link)
The board will apply the obesity charge to anyone with a body mass index of 35 or higher who is not making progress. A person 5 feet 6 inches tall weighing 220 pounds, for example, would have a BMI of 35.5. A BMI of 30 is considered the threshold for obesity.
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Obesity charge. That just sounds so innocuous, doesn't it?
With the increases in healthcare costs employers are looking for ways to cut costs and this is considered fair game. These "life style" charges are going to escalate if healthcare costs cannot be contained. There are already places that charge smokers extra as well. The rationale is that by making these unhealthy choices individuals are endangering their health and create an unnecessary financial burden to their group. Research indicates that smokers and those who are significantly overweight will use more than their fair share of healthcare dollars. It's a shame we can't just fix the healthcare problem instead of bandaiding it.
Well, it would be amazing if healthy food was actually AFFORDABLE. The prices on things that are "good for you" greatly outweigh the junk food prices, which makes absolutely no sense to me.
If people actually got out of their cars and walked around that might help a little too! What a concept!
While my first impression is great - do something to force people to lose weight and save money on insurance, I also feel worried. Where does it stop? Additional fees for people that ride motorcycles? Hunt? Skydive? white water kayaking? Being a gay man? What activities/lifestyles will they charge more for in order to limit people participating in?
The above activities are legal and reasonably safe, yet people get discriminated against all the time for doing them.
I read that in our local newspaper a couple days ago and was wondering if it'd be posted here. Guess we all knew it was going to happen eventually and we talked about it on some "smoking" threads. They just HAD to have another group of people to go after now. Fortunately, it wouldn't have any affect on DH or myself, but I just wonder how fair it is. There are a lot of people who aren't overweight who have health problems, too.
Yeah, simultaneously, the government is making it harder to stay healthy. They have decided they are going to irradiate our produce, and the FDA (govt./indutry wedded) will not require that we are notified of this practice through labeling. For those who don't know, irradiation makes your food inert. It kills all of the delicate phytochemicals that are responsible for FEEDING you. Just more evidence that the powers that be in the FDA want us sicker so their big pharma pals can make even MORE money off of us. They make us sick and fat so they can charge us for it!
Yes and if you read the articule you'll see it includes more than just being overweight. This part "If the screenings turn up serious problems with blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose or obesity" is telling us something. Now many people as they get older have these things. I have to be very careful what I eat to keep my cholesterol down. Lots of people take pills for it. Now they are going to charge more for people with some very common health problems.
I wish someone would fix our healthcare situation in this nation.
BMI is a very poor measurement. if they want to take a measurement to punish someone on they need to do a real body fat % test instead of applying something that applies to some of the population
So are they going to start charging women who gain weight while pregnant as well? Will they start charging her the moment she gives birth bc she may now fall in the obese category?
Will they waive the fee for women who just gave birth recently?
What about for a person who got in a terrible accident and has a bad back and can't physically do things like they used to? Or someone who's just getting older, hitting 70s or 80s. I think the metabolism slows down as you get older.
I dont think it's fair.
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