This is nothing new.

It is a well known fact that cigarette smokers' medical expenses exceed those of non-smokers...

rfenst wrote:

This is nothing new.

It is a well known fact that cigarette smokers' medical expenses exceed those of non-smokers...

rfenst wrote:

Yup and it's also Well Known that Obesity outstrips smokers health related costs....so how long before we see them run out of work?

TMCTLT wrote:

And diabetes.

danmdevries wrote:

Yup and it's also Well Known that Obesity outstrips smokers health related costs....so how long before we see them run out of work?

TMCTLT wrote:

Rather than having a debate over whether or not an employer (in this case public) can discriminate this way the more useful debate would be if health insurance should be tied to employment in the first place. I'd much rather modify the tax code and change the law to steer health insurance away from employer provided care to individually purchased policies like Home, Auto, etc. Let the insurance companies decide using actuarial anaylsis to determine how much more smokers should pay.

stogiefan wrote:

Smokers ALREADY paid much higher premiums than anyone else.....Back to MY question, how / when do they determine the rates for overweight and obese policy holders as they consume MORE everything.....including health care dollars than smokers??? IMHO this is NO area for political correctness and as far as I'm concerned it should be up to employers rather or NOT they hire OBESE employees

TMCTLT wrote:

But if employers were no longer compelled to have to purchase health insurance for their employees why would they care if they hired obese employees? Thats my point. A lot of these issues of whether or not employers can do this or can't do this would be solved by taking it out of their hands and moving health care strictly to the realm of public/private exchanges.

Also many companies already selectively choose who they want to hire. A company that is heavily concerned with health premiums is not going to hire many or any obese employees. Making it an open policy that they will not hire obese people opens themselves up for litigation.

stogiefan wrote:

Agreed, BUT my point IS as long as they ARE forced to provide a policy....they should get to determine their own risk willingness....rather it be smoking or obese employees. My point is they continue to go after smokers while looking past their Biggest ( no pun intended ) policy users.

TMCTLT wrote:

I think the reason they don't go after obese people is because there are some that legitimately are predisposed genetically to obesity. Personally I believe that most obese people today are that way because of their own poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyle but I think its just a gray area that employers don't want to touch. Smokers are just easier to demonize because it is seen as a conscious choice they make to smoke whereas for some obese people their weight is beyond their control even with their best efforts.

stogiefan wrote: