So, oddly enough, I saw this story on a celebrity gossip site about how the great state of Alabama is planning to start charging it's state employees $25.00 a month for their currently free insurance if they are determined obese during a routine check up. This charge will go into effect if, weight loss is not achieved after one year of either state-sponsored (i.e. free) aid in losing weight or the employees own attempts at losing weight.
There is currently already an identical charge in place for employees who continue to smoke.
On the one hand, I understand the motivation: Unhealthy people raise the insurance premiums for everyone. If the state is offering its employees free health care if they are healthy, then why not charge a marginal fee for those who aren't? I mean, I WISH my insurance premium was only $25.00 a month!
Plus, this is hardly a new concept. Drivers who often get caught speeding or who have been in multiple accidents pay a higher premium than those who haven't, because they are considered at a higher risk to the insurance company. Life insurance is hardly cheap for people who exhibit certain risk factors for an early death. And hell - even my own health insurance refuses to cover any allergy or asthma related charges because a doctor once prescribed Singulair to me to attempt to reduce the size of the polyps in my nasal passages.
On the other hand: What the fuck? Either offer free insurance or don't, but it's not the state's business if someone is big. Are they offering mental health services in this plan? Because you and I both know that a lot of times, people's weight issue is actually a food issue which is actually way beyond controlling what you eat and how much you exercise.
Also, what's next? Oh, you've had cancer or your family has a history of cancer - we're going to charge you $50.00 a month for your insurance because you're more likely to need it? What? Have allergies? That's probably expensive for us. $15.00 a month to help offset all your prescriptions of Singulair or that up the nose spray hocked by Antonio Banderas.
The human body is not infallible. It has weaknesses. You do your best to keep it well and healthy, and you're still not assured that you will avoid disease or accident. Some of these obese people are less likely than I am to be sick during a year. You've seen it time and time again - that guy, the one who jogs daily and doesn't eat egg yolks and took yoga - dropped dead from a heart attack at 55 while Mr. 3-packs a day and 300 pounds over here plods on to be 90 years old.
Health isn't an exact science. If it were, only the unhealthy people would get sick. Women who smoke crack would have four headed babies while women who eat right and exercise daily and avoid caffeine and blue cheese would have fat, happy, healthy babies only. But that doesn't always happen.
So I'm on the fence with this idea.
On the one hand, I'm hoping it gives my mom a little kick in the ass to try and lose some pounds, since nothing else, not even burning jealousy, has worked for her so far.
On the other hand, I'm not so sure it's completely fair for all those people who may just be big, and not necessarily big and unhealthy.
2 comments:
I am like you. I'm on the fence, because I see the reason behind the thinking. I also can see what this will lead to. That's the thing about making exceptions...it's really hard to draw that line.
I'm sure mental health is covered in that plan. It usually is. The thing about the state's insurance, like many others, they don't cover preventative care, i.e. colonoscopy at 50. You have to wait until there's a problem and then it's basically too late. It's really frustrating with health care in our country. There's hardly any preventative care covered and so all our money goes to taking care of the sick, instead of trying to help you not get sick. Like you said, a lot of that is out of the realm of science, but still...an ounce of prevention..., right?
I could go on for days. I'm just not sure what the right answer is.
Sara - I TOTALLY agree with you about preventative care. I don't understand why someone would scoff at paying, say, $200 a year for someone to stay healthy and opt instead to take the chances that they may cost them millions in the future because of missed diseases or issues. That doesn't make ANY sense to me at all!
Sadly, it won't even affect Mama, who plans to retire before it goes into effect (not because of that, though. LOL)
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