open enrollment

[TheKayla]

I would also not mind pitching in for those less fortunate. I can see how badly food service workers and discount store employees are ripped off with ridiculously low wages. However, in order to win my support, you have to increase out of pocket costs for heart disease and diabetes. That's a huge chunk of healthcare costs and is mostly caused by poor lifestyle choices.

Agreed, but I think that's mostly education and resources too. You can't just charge people more and expect them to get it and alter their lifestyle, so while I agree completely, I also know that can't be the only factor and we definitely need a balance of both to fix the problem permanently.

[bigdaddybus]

I would also not mind pitching in for those less fortunate. I can see how badly food service workers and discount store employees are ripped off with ridiculously low wages. However, in order to win my support, you have to increase out of pocket costs for heart disease and diabetes. That's a huge chunk of healthcare costs and is mostly caused by poor lifestyle choices.

I would agree with that if you had stated Type 2 Diabetes. Type 1 (which 5% of diabetics are) is not caused by lifestyle choice, it when the pancreas stops working all together and the patient would die without insulin injections.
If you have ever met any type 1 diabetics, they often have no sympathy for Type 2 diabetics (at least in my experience)

[bigdaddybus]

just curious if anyone elses employer plans have upcharges for lifestyle choices?

My employer announces starting this year that smokers with pay $15 more per month in 2014, and $50 more per month in 2015, than a non smoker. 2016 will be based on market pricing.
Whats next? the obese is a logical choice. Maybe those who drink. Maybe drop all patients that come in with an STD as they must fornicate too much. I'm interested to see how far they take this.

BTW, I work for a company in the Top 50 of the Fortune 500 with 65,000+ employees. I would guess that 99% of the people on here have heard of the company and 1 in 4 of you buy our services. If it is happening here, I assume its happening elsewhere and other companies will follow.

[disneysteve]

just curious if anyone elses employer plans have upcharges for lifestyle choices?

My employer announces starting this year that smokers with pay $15 more per month in 2014, and $50 more per month in 2015, than a non smoker. 2016 will be based on market pricing.
Whats next? the obese is a logical choice. Maybe those who drink.

I think this makes perfect sense. Life insurance rates have done this for years. Smokers pay more. The obese pay more. Those with hazardous jobs or lifestyles (skydivers) pay more. It makes no sense to not do the same for health insurance.

[disneysteve]

A lot of places actually give incentives for improving your lifestyle. Quit smoking and you get a discount or rebate. Lose weight and you get a discount or rebate. Go to the gym regularly and you get a discount or rebate. I think incentivizing people to take better care of themselves is a great idea and it has proven to be successful many places.

[atomicrc11]

My employer has penalties for smoking which increase each year. THe current cost is $10 per pay period, which add up to about $260 as we are paid bi-weekly. The penalty will be $15 next year and $20 the following year.

As for the obese getting charged more, forget about that. It will never happen as obesity is now considered a disease. Here in MA, the legislature is talking about making obese people a protected class. This will essentially kill any proposal to increase health care costs based on weight. It would essentially be discrimination to charge more based on weight. It will also increase law suits as someone could sue if fired and they are obese.

I'm not saying we should discriminate based on weight, however, the overall health of the country needs to be changed. More laws certainly isn't the answer as all they do it make is illegal to discriminate. What we need are programs to help people get healthy and active. This way it is passed onto our children and we break the cycle of getting fatter and lazier.

[greenskeeper]

It fascinates me how some people assume any increase in their health insurance costs is due to Obamacare.

To assume makes an ass out of u and me.

The plan administrator directly spoke about the owebamacare impact on prices and cited it numerous times for the increases....no assumption....fact.

If the government can force people to buy insurance plans they don't want then where does it stop? Why not require everyone to buy a GM car since the gov't is highly invested in the company?

[hamchan]

I would also not mind pitching in for those less fortunate. I can see how badly food service workers and discount store employees are ripped off with ridiculously low wages. However, in order to win my support, you have to increase out of pocket costs for heart disease and diabetes. That's a huge chunk of healthcare costs and is mostly caused by poor lifestyle choices.

Bull. My dad has a heart condition. He raises or hunts for most of his own food, is thin, and has been very athletic his whole life. His dad was too and he also had a stroke in his fifties. My husband has diabetes, and he walks to and from work everyday, as well as pretty much anywhere else, he is extremely careful with his diet, and he goes to the gym six days a week. He is not overweight. And yet despite his healthy lifestyle he is now blind, has feet that are completely deformed from bone infections, and has stage 4 kidney disease. He suffers severe depression because nothing he does seems to have any positive effect on the disease. His sister is exactly the same as he is.

[cardtrick]

Bull. My dad has a heart condition. He raises or hunts for most of his own food, is thin, and has been very athletic his whole life. His dad was too and he also had a stroke in his fifties. My husband has diabetes, and he walks to and from work everyday, as well as pretty much anywhere else, he is extremely careful with his diet, and he goes to the gym six days a week. He is not overweight. And yet despite his healthy lifestyle he is now blind, has feet that are completely deformed from bone infections, and has stage 4 kidney disease. He suffers severe depression because nothing he does seems to have any positive effect on the disease. His sister is exactly the same as he is.

Yeah, you'd be surprised at the number of people with these lifestyle diseases who claim that they did all the right things with their diet. More often than not, they're either misinformed or are completely BSing. I have plenty of them in my family. Obesity definitely increases risk, but that is not the only factor. Type 2 diabetes caused by genetics? Never heard that before. Has your husband been maintaining this lifestyle his whole life or did he just start after he was diagnosed? A vegan, mostly raw fruit and veggie diet seems to do wonders for diabetes. Has he tried that? It might be worth looking into. There has to be a way this can be accounted for. A quick appeal process for those whose condition wasn't caused by poor lifestyle choices might be an option.

BTW, being thin doesn't mean that you can't get heart disease. Red meat is a pretty big contributor and so is processed food.

My dad is in his 60s, excellent diet and workouts. I've never seen him eat anything sweet. Never. He is healthier than me. He's retired but still works almost 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Assuming he doesn't have a freak accident, I fully expect him to live into his 90s and probably work into his late 80s. His mom and dad both died from heart disease. He has inspired me to clean up my lifestyle. I want to be as healthy as him, when I'm his age.

[cardtrick]

To assume makes an ass out of u and me.

The plan administrator directly spoke about the owebamacare impact on prices and cited it numerous times for the increases....no assumption....fact.

If the government can force people to buy insurance plans they don't want then where does it stop? Why not require everyone to buy a GM car since the gov't is highly invested in the company?

I've read many reports that state that more of the costs are being pushed onto healthier, younger people. When you think about it, it makes sense. What would an insurance company do if the government told them that they must cover the sick, and they must do so for a price lower than market price? They will simply raise prices for everyone.

We have a great wellness program at work. Most people don't take advantage of it. And usually, you can see them walk back with their lunch. Pizza, burgers, fries etc. Why should I pay for someone who is not responsible enough to take care of their health? And how about smokers? Most cancers are also caused by poor lifestyle choices. Alcohol for example increases the risk for many cancers.

I should just give up and start eating junk food too! No matter how much healthcare i need, the government essentially guarantees what my premium and out of pocket expense will be.

[cardtrick]

Yeah, you'd be surprised at the number of people with these lifestyle diseases who claim that they did all the right things with their diet. More often than not, they're either misinformed or are completely BSing. I have plenty of them in my family. Obesity definitely increases risk, but that is not the only factor. Type 2 diabetes caused by genetics? Never heard that before. Has your husband been maintaining this lifestyle his whole life or did he just start after he was diagnosed? A vegan, mostly raw fruit and veggie diet seems to do wonders for diabetes. Has he tried that? It might be worth looking into. There has to be a way this can be accounted for. A quick appeal process for those whose condition wasn't caused by poor lifestyle choices might be an option.

BTW, being thin doesn't mean that you can't get heart disease. Red meat is a pretty big contributor and so is processed food.

My dad is in his 60s, excellent diet and workouts. I've never seen him eat anything sweet. Never. He is healthier than me. He's retired but still works almost 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Assuming he doesn't have a freak accident, I fully expect him to live into his 90s and probably work into his late 80s. His mom and dad both died from heart disease. He has inspired me to clean up my lifestyle. I want to be as healthy as him, when I'm his age.

Anyone else reading this thread: Don't but into this myth that diabetes and heart disease can happen to anyone. You are in control here and if have the will, you can make sure that you never have to suffer with these terrible diseases. Do your own research. You'll be surprised at what you find. Look up Dean Ornish and his work on this. There's also another doc at Mayo clinic who has achieved amazing results with patients who have had multiple bypass surgeries and were basically told by their doctors that they wouldn't make it another year. And he did all of this without prescribing a single pill.

[hamchan]

Cardtrick, my husband was raised by his thin grandparents who made everything deep fried with butter and mayo. He was an overweight kid and lost the weight after leaving home. His sister was not raised with him at all. He didn't even meet her until he was an adult. You seriously have never heard of a genetic link for type 2 diabetes? That is kind of frightening. Yes, there is a strong gentic component with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and you will often find both within the same family as well. No he has not tried a vegan diet, because a vegan diet would be incredibly dangerous for someone with advanced kidney disease due to the high levels of potassium. I know what he eats because I'm the one who makes it for him. I see his A1C counts. His blood sugar numbers.

Just to play devil's advocate here though, let's say that someone does have diabetes and their lifestyle has not been 100% perfect. If they then turn it around and do everything in their power to maintain their weight and health, you still think they should pay more? That's kind of crappy. My husband's employer does charge more for those who do not maintain healthy levels of certain biomarkers like blood pressure, A1C, etc. If you are diabetic your A1C has to be under 7. My husband's is in the 6.5 range. His blood pressure is also in the healthy range. He doesn't have to pay more for his insurance. I think if your levels are off you can avoid paying more by enrolling in a wellness program designed to improve your numbers. I don't know because he's never had to do it.

As for my dad, he rarely eats red meat. He fishes and hunts for wild birds. The vast majority of their food is hunted for, foraged for, or grown. They are not growing Red Bull and Twinkies.

On the flip side I have many many relatives on my mom's side who smoke, are obese, are sedentary, and live a long time with little to no health problems. Clearly it pays to be born with the right genes.