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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.
It's NOT discrimination, it is risk assessment. This is insurance, you are asking the company to bear the risk associated with smoking, obesity, skydiving, etc. compared to people who don't do any of those things. They are saying these behaviors are higher risk and telling the consumer that the cost will be higher too.
No different than higher car insurance rates for people who get multiple speeding tickets or are in accidents more often. Risk goes up, cost goes up.
Home owners insurance for people who live in flood plains or areas subject to hurricane damage, they pay higher rates too.
It's about risk and who will pay for those who are higher risk, the person engaging in risky behavior or the rest of us who aren't?? I'm not losing any sleep knowing people who choose more risk pay more.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
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I was in the insurance industry and spent many years paying out insurance claims (yeah, sitting behind a desk and deciding if the claim gets paid or not, investigating pre-existing, etc) and I can tell you that, by far, the biggest claims I paid out collectively were for preemies, cancer, and transplant recipients. In other words, extending the lives of the extremely sick--especially the very young and the very old. Not that I'm against that.
I get the point that we should take care of ourselves. But the bottom line is that insurance companies (the ones who whine about the high costs of healthcare) are for profit. When they want more money (other than denying claims to begin with) they target another group to raise rates in order to line their pockets. Yesterday it was smokers, today it's fat people, and tomorrow they'll tell employers that everyone with a tan is paying more for their increased risk of skin cancer.
Location: Georgia, on the Florida line, right above Tallahassee
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bande1102
I was in the insurance industry and spent many years paying out insurance claims (yeah, sitting behind a desk and deciding if the claim gets paid or not, investigating pre-existing, etc) and I can tell you that, by far, the biggest claims I paid out collectively were for preemies, cancer, and transplant recipients. In other words, extending the lives of the extremely sick--especially the very young and the very old. Not that I'm against that.
I get the point that we should take care of ourselves. But the bottom line is that insurance companies (the ones who whine about the high costs of healthcare) are for profit. When they want more money (other than denying claims to begin with) they target another group to raise rates in order to line their pockets. Yesterday it was smokers, today it's fat people, and tomorrow they'll tell employers that everyone with a tan is paying more for their increased risk of skin cancer.
I do not like this approach. A penalty for being a certain way. I much prefer a discount for staying healthy. A positive reinforcement rather than a negative reinforcement.
I do not like this approach. A penalty for being a certain way. I much prefer a discount for staying healthy. A positive reinforcement rather than a negative reinforcement.
its the exact same thing stop playing semantics
and for anyone saying its discriminitory- get real
its discriminatory to make healthy people pay a disproprtionate amount fo healthcare to subsidize unhealthy people
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
Yep. Most football players and a number of olympic athletes would fail based upon BMI alone. Back when I was right out of college and worked out 6 days a week I was 5'8 and 170 and was in single digits body fat....and perhaps they changed the measure a bit since then but I was near the "obese" threshold.
My employer gives us a small cut on our insurance cost for doing a health assessment and also another for taking part in a wellness plan. I personally see nothing wrong with it, heck I'm overweight now and working my way down so I'm using it as incentive.
Until they throw out some statistic by the insurance company claiming that a biker has a higher chance of a physical injury resulting in a loss work day and they charge you higher rates or it starts factoring into your promotions or even hiring because companies feel driving to work is better.
Hey whatever, but they've got to weigh all risk factors and pick their battles. Something that's become a nation-wide epidemic vs. a low-risk accident. The odds of one vs. the other happening to an individual are a bit far off from each other.
I'm an engineer so that's already a pretty high risk factor by itself. We often run with scissors.
As a healthy person who PRACTICES a healthy lifestyle, I'm basically in favor of this. I resent subsidizing unhealthy people who are unhealthy because they don't PRACTICE healthy living. On the other hand if someone is overweight thru disability, or genetic makeup then I don't mind helping them out a bit. If an overweight person can prove that they eat a healthy diet, and exercise regularly and they are still overweight, then let them pay the normal rate. IMO, rather than basing premiums on weight, base the premium on lifestyle.
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