Obesity and Health Insurance
The first state in the US to require obese state employees to pay for their own health insurance is Alabama.If any state employee has a BMI of 35 or greater and doesn’t show progress towards weight loss, they will charge $25 per month. This will be assessed by the Alabama State Employees’ insurance Board.
According to the LA Times, this plan was approved last week. Alabama will give their employees until January 2010 to lose the weight. As it is now, they charge smokers $24 a month for their insurance. If you smoke and are obese, the fee will be $49 a month. An Insurance Board member is quoted as saying, We are trying to get individuals to become more aware of their health.”
On the surface, the proposal makes sense. It’s widely accepted that being obese is a health risk – risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, high cholesterol, and a myriad of other health problems. So why not penalize people for being unhealthy?
The oppositions to this hypothetical question are many. Mostly being expressed by the obese employees of Alabama themselves.
Well, the problem is every overweight and obese person is not necessarily unhealthy.A recent study found that about half of overweight Americans (BMI of 25 to 30) have normal blood pressure and normal cholesterol levels. Of those who are obese, having a BMI more than 30, almost one-third have normal blood pressure and cholesterol counts, wrote the LA Times article.”[The new plan is] terrible. Some people come into this world big,” pointed out an Alabama state employee. It seems like an interesting debate to come.
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