"Have Your Say!": Financial Incentives for Weight Loss?
Tuesday August 26, 2008
I ran across an interesting video today featuring Dr. Howard LeWine of Harvard Medical School commenting on something that's in the news.
Soon, overweight Alabama state employees will be charged $25 more per month for their benefits if they don't lose weight over a certain period of time. That means those who stay overweight will pay around $250 more per year for their insurance coverage than those who are slim.
What do you think? Should insurance companies provide a financial incentive for weight loss?
Comments
can you say discrimination!
Well here in the UK, a lot of the Health insurance companies are giving you a lot of incentive when you attend the gym.
The more and longer you attend the gym the less you pay for the gym and at some point it becomes totally free.
What more some gym give out fitness tests for free.
Everyone seems to think all overweight people are that way simply from eating too much; however, there are a multitude of medical reasons for either becoming overweight or not being able to lose weight. Thyroid, metabolic syndrome, various medications, heart conditions, etc. etc. By charging more for health benefits or anything else I do believe they are justifiably opening themselves up for discrimination suits. Are they going to charge more for people with heart conditions, diabetes, MS, etc. etc?
I agree with this because extra weight adds so many health problems with it. I also think people should have to pay extra for medical insurance if they choose to smoke.
Having lost 130 lbs over the last 14 months by my own efforts (no surgery, no weight loss groups), I think $25 per month is ridiculous. Assuming that the excess weight is a behavioral problem related to overeating/underexercising and not a symptom of a disease, employees would need a serious threat to make the sort of attitude changes nessesary to correct this long term behavioral problem. $25 per month will accomplish nothing.
I believe overweight people (having been there myself) need to feel that their weight is a real threat to their life and that they have no choise but to fix their problem, much like an alcoholic “hitting bottom”. This sort of behavior nees to be looked at as a substance abuse problem.
I am apalled at this “blatant” discrimination against people whose weight doesn’t conform to a set standard!!! Are we no longer human beings? I have know slim people with numerous health problems.Is there any means of fighting against this discrimination?GEEEZ!!!!!!!!
I am irate! If this sort of “discrimination” was placed against race,sexual orientation,religion or any “different” human being,there would be a public outcry!!!!We are NOT a society of humanoids all created to look a certain way.There must be a way to fight this.
Wow, I work so hard to keep the weight off. Walk, work out, eat the good things. Still, the weight stays on. I’m 60 and really care. I do believe that medication has so much to do with it but the medical field just poo poos it. Talk to a normal person and yep, they’ll agree!
Thin people are not necessarily healthier than overweight people. I know some very thin people who have high blood pressure and/or high cholesterol. A very dear thin friend is Type I diabetic. I’m overweight, but my medical/prescription bills are a lot lower than my friends’.
Implementing this type of penalty on overweight people is blatant discrimination, won’t generate the expected effect, but should generate lawsuits.
i feel that the issues of personal responsibility for health as it applies to those issues outside of the individual are important, such as health insurance and health management costs, which affect all of us. however, i feel that it is wrong to focus on those things which can be seen visualy, i.e., weight (either size or numbers on a scale) when it is behavior that is the problem. you can have a “thinner-looking” person that could be eating terribly, drinking or smoking in excess. those behaviors will contribute higher health costs as well, yet are not visually detectable. health issues for this country have to be addressed, but i don’t think $25 fees assessed only against “overweight” people is the way.