Lawmakers delay vote on bill charging obese employees more for healthcare

Lawmakers delay vote on bill charging obese employees more for healthcare
AP with additional reporting by Brooke Katz
Published: February 11, 2009
Updated: February 12, 2009
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South Carolina lawmakers have delayed voting on whether to charge obese public employees higher premiums in the state health insurance plan.
   
A Senate Finance subcommittee delayed its vote Tuesday. Republican Sen. Greg Ryberg of Aiken said he would be willing to rewrite his bill as a way to reward healthy residents rather than punish overweight workers.
   
Ryberg said he hopes to have it back on the agenda within a month.
   
Ryberg said too many residents are overeating and not exercising. He said their deliberate decisions not to take care of themselves are costing the state. He said he wants to motivate people to live healthier.
   
Senators agreed with the bill’s intent but said it would be difficult to enforce.

| Original Article: Posted Tuesday February 10th at 6:00 am |

Obese public employees would have to pay an extra $25 monthly for their state health insurance under a bill up for debate in South Carolina.
   
The measure sponsored by GOP Sen. Greg Ryberg of Aiken is on the agenda Tuesday in a Senate subcommittee. It would tie the surcharge to employees’ body-mass index, a weight and height measurement. A BMI of 30 is considered obese. According to a spokesperson for Sen. Ryberg, state employees’ health insurance does not cover preventive measures such as gym memberships and nutrition plans.
   
The proposal follows a vote last August to increase health insurance premiums of public workers who smoke. The smoking surcharge is set to take effect Jan. 1, 2010. It was approved by a five-member board that oversees the state budget.
   
Smokers called it an unfair increase, since smoking isn’t the only bad habit that increases health care costs.
   
South Carolina has among the nation’s highest rates of obesity and diabetes.

If you would like to read the bill for yourself, click the following link: http://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess118_2009-2010/bills/109.htm
If you would like to find out your BMI, click this link: http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bmicalc.htm

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Flag Comment Posted by brokenhandle on February 14, 2009 at 11:27 am
As long as insurance companies pay their "administrators" MILLIONS of $$$$ the shell game will continue. It is all too easy in current society to pit "the fit" against "the fat", the well against the sick & the insurance companies laugh all the way to the bank. Live healthy, eat sensibly, exercise - all great things but they won't prevent the inevitable - everyone gets sick, suffers & then dies. EVERYONE. Hope the folks who "don't want to pay" for someone else can accomplish the sickness, suffering & end of life misery fast & cheap - so they don't "cost" others... A greater waste of health care dollars happens daily - when the "worried well" with 2 days of nasal congestion & sneezing without fever show up at a doctor's office demanding "treatment" because they "are miserable". Going to healthcare provider for a snotty cold is one of the most common visits - and a total waste of healthcare dollars. The young otherwise healthy folks all too often have done NOTHING to address their symptoms themselves - but they "want" (demand) antibiotics, prescription decongestants, work excuses, disability...
Flag Comment Posted by jatabad on February 13, 2009 at 1:20 pm
So...the people who are for it are perfect and don't drink or take medications that specifically tell you not to drive motor vehicles or machinery while in use, do you ever eat out at restaurants and are your foods all organic? Do you exercise atleast three times a week? and read your bibles daily? How about your mental stature, studies prove that stress is a major factor in health related problems. Do you sleep 8 hours per night and brush your teeth three times a day? I am not saying that a high risk lifestyle doesn't cause an increase in health cost, I am saying when do we finally say enough! Do you work for an insurance company? Maybe you should change occupations because you may well be what they are looking for. It's all about money. We have allowed our health care industry to inflate these costs, while other countries are providing better health care at a much lower price. We are slaves to unregulated enterprise and poorly managed fiscal budgets. It costs just pennies to produce a common pharmaceutical prescription, yet they charge 100's of times this amount when its sold. We need to work on bringing health care costs down, not charging more.
Flag Comment Posted by BigMike on February 13, 2009 at 1:13 pm
for those of you who think this is a good idea to penalize "obese" people... You first need to stop, take a breath and realize that this is government that you are dealing with here. This is how the government determines if you are "obese", they do one and only one thing and that is to calculate your body mass index or BMI. I know many, many friends and associates who would be classified as "obese" because of their BMI. These people many of whom I work out with are in better shape than 99% of most of the U.S. population. Our Insurance representatives here at the office have us fill out a "health survey" and they do the same exact thing. They calculate our BMI and then they call us to tell us that we should lose weight!!! I always laugh at them! This would be OK if they actually calculated something like the percentage of your body fat to go alogn with your BMI but they don't and they won't! Actually I take that back, even if they did that then it still wouldn't be OK. The government has no business even getting involved. If they do they will most assuredly #### it up!!! If you let government do this then you WILL regret it yourself at soem poitn downthe road. This will only be the first step.
Flag Comment Posted by javari on February 13, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Im for it. In fact the only reason I pay as high a premium as I do for my Insurance is because factored into that is the cost for all those Fatties, smokers and people with dangerous life styles that make claims on stuff that could have been prevented. Few claims are truly accidental or not at all "their" fault. Let the high risk pay High dollar. I'm tired of paying for their mistakes.
Flag Comment Posted by javari on February 13, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I agree, statistically fatter people do cost more, so they should pay more, $25 more probably isn't enough. People pay more when they have bad driving records and cost insurance companies more money or they pay more when they live in a flood zone due to the likely hood of flooding claims. Its business nothing personal.
Flag Comment Posted by brokenhandle on February 12, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Go for whatever group "the Guvmint" can unify "the People" against. Worked for Hitler... for a while. Going for the unseemly, slovenly, fatties... next go for the genetically "unsuitable" because they should not be "allowed" to "cost all the rest of us". What a bunch of hogwash! Cruel, deceptive deceitful hogwash designed to divide and conquer groups of people. Don't fall for this technique people!
Flag Comment Posted by jatabad on February 12, 2009 at 9:36 pm
No, I think this is ridiculous, if we are going to charge more to smokers and obese, than when will it stop, how about drinkers, druggers, under nourished, vegans, meat-eaters, people with mental issues, people with athritis, etc, etc, etc, we could continue to go on and then who will determine if a person actually falls into one of these categories, doesn't everyone fall into a category of some sort, nobody has earned Sainthood to my knowledge, why let someone govern our personal preferences and take away our right to be free. I think too many people out there forget that this can eventually get them too. It's only a ploy to continue to raise costs for everyone to a level that is acceptable to the insurance companies, who support executives with elaborate spending habits and then have enough nerve to ask for taxpayer(bailout) money on top of charging more. Wish I had a private jet...
Flag Comment Posted by Yirmin on February 12, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Of course the fact that being over weight is sometimes due to medical conditions would result in the law being challenged and tossed out under the American's with Disabilities Act... you discriminate against someone because they have a disability and that wont fly... so nice try but it wouldn't hold up.
Flag Comment Posted by fschipani on February 12, 2009 at 3:23 pm
I am a very overweight government worker (currently excersising and on Weight Watchers). I almost never call in sick (compared to most of my co-workers who regulary call in) and as a single male, use my insurance much less than my co-workers. Why should I pay more when I cost them less? Also, I've just switched to a health care plan that pays for most of Weight Watchers. Are there incentives like that to employees that want help losing weight?
Flag Comment Posted by labloverlady on February 12, 2009 at 3:22 pm
There are alot of strong opinions here, but I agree with Cole. Allowing the government to do this takes us one step closer to "Big Brother" controlling everything that we do. I did not realize until yesterday that it has already be passed for smokers to be charged extra starting next year, I believe. Well, this is exactly my point. The smokers got "surcharged" and that went through, so now obese people are being singled out. Every new law/resolution/rule takes away some of our liberty, which this country was founded on, many have died for and are still dying to protect.

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