My biggest boss's boss wants us to look at charging for their medical benefits for employees who smoke. Currently employees pay nothing and they pay a shit load for their dependents. On the one hand, it doesn't affect me so why should I care... on the other it starts raising a concern for me. As a fat chick, I'm well aware of all the press about how fat people are killing the nation with our fatness and our fatty lifestyles and how we're all going to cost the country a bajillion trillion dollars in medical costs. (It clearly bugs me because I'm a healthy fat chick. My cholesterol is awesome. My sugars are good blah blah blah. Just don't ask about my genetic stuff. :) ) So my concern is thus... we start charging the smokers because their lung cancer is so bad... how long is it before we start charging the fatties and further on, do we start charging those people who actually get sick more? It just seems like a slippery slope to me.
Unrelated to this, I'm going to see Harry Potter 5 finally. And better... I'm going to see it in 3-d Imax at the Pacific Science Center. Admit it, you all are jealous! :)
3 comments:
Smoking is a disease [including addiction], initiated by a personal choice.
Weight is much murkier: genetics, lifestyle, exersize, food, stress level.
I think you are rightly concerned, but I also think there are lines we can draw in the gray. That said, a health care system that was more preventative than waiting for people to get sick, addicted, or symptomatic would be preferred.
Either way, the weak will be selected out of the population somehow...
As a non-smoker, I do wish that those who did smoke would be "penalized" for their unhealthy habit inflating my premiums; however, you have a very valid point.
Not too long ago I heard about some insurance company that wanted to have access to the family history to determine eligible coverage. Now THAT's a slippery slope! I'd like to see how they get around adoptions, Steps-whatevers, third-party reproductive means, etc. Frankly, I was surprised that they even let that information leak into the public eye. Idiots.
Like DD, I want the smokers at work penalized too, however, I would like to see it in the form of less vacation time for them based on the amount of time they spend outside smoking everyday.
Dear Company,
Please do not also looking into time wasted blogging.
Thanks,
Michelle
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