Should obese people pay more for insurance?

Since I've lost my girth I've become somewhat of a crusader for the obese. I honestly don't like being treated like I'm better than I used to be -- I'm sure you've experienced it. It's not correct to be prejudiced against anybody because of color, religion, nationality, family background, but it's just great to think somebody's sorrier than dirt if they're fat, and don't keep it a secret, be sure the MO person knows every minute what a wart on humanity's butt they are because they can't control their weight. Most people look at a MO woman and figure she sits on her butt, doesn't do any work, and eats bon bons and watches soap operas all day, doesn't care about herself, and now, she's draining the economy because of health costs. Here in north Georgia, a lot of employers started requiring smokers to pay more for health insurance. I've never been a smoker and can't relate, but it must be really hard to quit or people wouldn't keep smoking. Now they're on us about weight. If people don't lose a certain percentage of their weight within a year, they have to pay more insurance than their normal-BMI counterparts. On the other hand, the insurance companies don't want to pay for counseling, nutrition classes, or especially WLS. I was very lucky in that when I was SMO I still had good health and didn't run up a lot of medical bills. But most of the women I work with, who were all a lot skinnier than me, dang, they were so full of pills you can hear them ratting in there, they run to the doctor every week or so for something, but that's OK, let's just pick on the fat folks to defray the cost. What does everybody else think? I just think it's pure discrimination. How far can it go? If one of your parents has diabetes, should you pay more? Or if you're at higher risk for heart disease or cancer because of genetics? I don't know about all that, I just know i'ts open season on fat people.

Hi Wanda!  Lovely to see you but not lovely at all to hear this news.  I'm soooo with you on the fa-bashing that is acceptable everywhere.  It makes me so mad to be treated better now that I'm normal weight.  I have even had other people (who could stand to lose #30 or so!) have the gall to turn to me (a complete stranger!) to make a nasty comment about a MO person in line ahead of us.  Not being someone who makes good comebacks on the spot I was just rooted there and mute but every time I think of that now I wish I could go back and let that lady have a piece of my mind. 

It is just wrong, wrong, wrong that insurance co.'s can get away with this type of descrimination.  Just Thursday night at support group my surgeon's bariatric coordinator showed us an announcement of some kind of legislation that just passed in the house or senate that will require insurance companies to pay for wls.  Sounds great but not enough teeth in the law and I think people still have to jump through massive hoops and go through appeals processes before they can tap into this law. 

Like you say...what you are seeing in N. Georgia  just leaves the door open for more discrimination and the insurance industry as a whole will probably jump on that pretty darn fast unless laws are set in place to protect people from it. 

Good to see you...hugs!

Molly

PS....ever since you changed to your current avvie I've been dying to know: 

WHAT'S WITH THAT GORGEOUS CAKE TRYING TO OUTSHINE YOUR BEAUTIFUL SELF?! 

LOL

Wanda, that is down right prejudice. It should be illegal. Obesity is a disease and the insurance companies acknowledge that along with the medical community.

I ran into this personally many times when I was SMO. When I was working I was  not a slacker and pulled my own weight and more compared to some others I worked with. I was made to demonstate my physical ability to perform different tasks with a physical therapist. Of course I could perform them just fine. That was just many of the injustices I had to endure. At one point in time I was working full time and attending college at the same time and I encountered instructors in my nursing program that had a definate prejudice against obese people and treated me differently than my normal weight counterparts and tried hard to get me to quit, but I would not give them the satisfaction. I even had an obese male patient question me on how I could work since I was so fat.

To me this is the last prejudice left that is considered acceptable to punish, criticise, and ostracise and most do nothing to stop it.

We all need to remember where we came from and stand up when we see this kind of descrimination to obese people. It can not be tolerated!

Sher

ps. as you can tell this is a real sore subject for me also.

That is a sore subject for me too.  I get irate when obese people are even looked at with disapproval because I remember the glances and even a teenage boy saying, you are really ugly. 

May all of the predjudiced people in the world get what they deserve. 

I do quote research about causes of obesity whenever I can, the appetite hormone we lack etc.
 
We, the post surgery, are recovering obese people.  I don't think we will ever be cured or I don't seem to be. 

Thanks for reading/listening to my rant. 
Michigan Grandma

What I think is even worse is that after WLS you cant get health insurance on your own with out it being high risk. I was lucky and my WLS was paid for through my husband group insurance. After he retired we were forced to find new insurance and I was tuned down by every company and ended up getting HIRSP which is for high risk and paying a high premium and having a high deductable.  I finally got a job that offered  group health insurance no questions asked. They say you are high risk for 5 years after WLS. I am 100 pounds thinner and the only medication I take is for Thyroid, so go figure. Debra

People who don't think obese people should pay more for insurance don't really understand the purpose of an actuary.  Insurance is about the statistics and probabilty of risk.  Do people with smaller cars pay higher premiums because they are more likely to be injured in an auto accident?  Yes they do.  Do younger and older drivers pay more because they are more likely to CAUSE an accident?  Yes they do.

Obese people are more likely to create higher medical expenses because of the diabetes, heart disease, etc. and so they SHOULD pay more for health insurance.  On the other hand, healthy people will live LONGER and incur more health expense from their 50's into their 80's long after the obese people are dead.  This is why they pay what they do for health insurance.

Statisticians have figured all this stuff out.  If I can save 5% on my aircraft insurance by getting extra training, why is not the same to let people to save 5% on their health insruance if they are normal BMI?