Author Topic: Union official: Smoking, obesity, other health issues could mean paying more under ObamaCare  (Read 893 times)

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Offline flowers

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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/18/smoking-obesity-other-health-issues-can-mean-paying-more-under-obamacare/?intcmp=latestnews

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Under ObamaCare, smoking, obesity and other health conditions sometimes penalized by wellness programs can force even those with employer-provided insurance to pay more, an officer of the National Union of Healthcare Workers said Tuesday.

"I run five miles a day, I don't drink, I don't smoke. And by the Kaiser wellness program that a number of employees we represent are covered by, I'm two pounds from being overweight," said John Borsos.

Kaiser said in a statement late Tuesday that its program is voluntary and does not penalize those who don't meet the program's goals, although that is not true for other programs.

Borsos says even the extremely fit, such as Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, would be considered overweight by wellness programs.

The rules for such a program, put out in May as a regulation, say, "The program must be reasonably designed to promote health or prevent disease."

Borsos criticizes what he calls "a lack of precision in what's going on out there. It’s kind of troubling," he says, "that this was so heavily incorporated into the Affordable Care Act in the way that it was.”

"Wellness is very, very popular in the corporate world," says John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas. "Companies are just beginning to impose pretty severe penalties."

If workers do not participate, for instance, they can be charged up to 20 percent of their health insurance premium, and that is going up to 30 percent in January. 

Employers like wellness programs because they think they help create a healthier workforce.   

For instance, CVS drug stores imposed a $50 fine per month -- $600 a year-- on those who refuse to disclose their weight, body fat, and other health measures.


Offline EC

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Let me take a wild guess. They are using BMI for their obesity guide.  :shrug:
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Offline Rapunzel

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Let me take a wild guess. They are using BMI for their obesity guide.  :shrug:


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Offline EC

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The universe doesn't hate you. Unless your name is Tsutomu Yamaguchi

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Offline happyg

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So, only healthy people get a decent break on insurance? Many over-weight people and smokers are healthy. I wonder what other health issues they are talking about? Whatever happened to pre existing conditions? I know many smokers who outlived their non smoking spouses. Before the smoking laws came into effect, I used to take a bunch of old people outside the nursing home to smoke, all in their 80s and more.

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