Smokers, obese should pay more health insurance: poll

Sixty percent of those polled favored higher premiums for smokers while 30 percent felt the obese should pay more.

Good thing they didn’t ask about premiums for drug addicts. I’m sure that we’ll be hearing about this in upcoming polls. These kinds of incentives may well be coming, particularly as workers shoulder more of their health insurance costs. There are good arguments for providing incentives for healthy choices, but their’s also dangers: creating barriers to getting and maintaining coverage; further stigmatizing already stigmatized groups; and, punishing diseases (say, addiction) rather than encouraging healthy behaviors (receiving treatment).

When a small self-employed business familiy plans for 4 people cost in the neighborhood of $1,000 per month , health insurance providers NEED to bring down the costs for health conscious policy holders.