Legit question.

I agree.

If I am an unsafe driver, my auto insurance premiums would go through the roof. The same should apply to people who live unhealthy lifestyles by choice.

The same should apply to people who live unhealthy lifestyles by choice.

Today is our company President’s "Town Hall" meeting, and at the end of the meeting he reads some questions that were sent in to him from employees.

Our health insurance premiums just went up for smokers.

The question he got was this:

“I think raising the insurance premiums for smokers was a great idea. What are the chances that we are going to do the same for the employees who are obese?”

What about all those married assholes that CHOSE to get pregnant and have kids? and then put their kids on the policy??????????? My rates went up because of them as well.

No more children!

Right? Because all fat people chose to be fat. Fuckers.

Do I really need to explain to you how someone having kids cost money?

And what about all those freeloading cancer "victims"? I mean, I'm the real victim because I pay the same premium. Amirite?

Do I really need to explain to you how someone having kids cost money?

Every insurance plan I've ever heard of has charged a family a different rate than an individual. They are paying for the cost of extra kids by the rate that is most of the time significantly more.

That isn't how group health works, Rick. I rarely go to a doctor. I'm guessing bigfan is in the same boat. I've worked with guys who had their kids in ER every weekend. The coverage works because there are single guys who very rarely use services. Our insurance cost is cheaper but not when you consider the services used.

No, you don't pay for the services you use(besides deductibles). You pay for the services you can use.

Family insurance is more because you can use more services and also are likely to use them more often.

If individuals were the ones who provided the means by which the insurance companies make money then individual insurance outside of a group plan wouldn't be so expensive.

You may rarely go to the doctor, but that doesn't mean that you won't in the future.

Individual insurance outside of a group is expensive because there are no other group members to spread the risk against.

Let me make it simple. If everyone were going to pay the costs for the services he (and his family) used, there would be no reason to buy insurance. The money has to come from somewhere. Insurance companies don't run at a loss. They take in X in premiums. They pay out Y in claims. X is always higher than Y. That's done because the average guy like bigfan uses less services than an average family of four and an average guy with IMU's profile uses even less services than the average bigfan.

So, while you don't want to pay the cost to stop your neighbor's home from burning down, you clearly have no problem with bigfan and I subsidizing the ER visits of your kid.

Which is why, even though I don't have any kids, I'd have to pay 4x as much for a "family plan" instead of an individual plan.

In most cases I don't believe it's going to work out to be four times more for a family than for an individual. And the larger the family, the better the value for the insured. Regardless, the fact is the average family is going to receive a better value, i.e. more services for per dollar than the individual. Women are going to use more services than men. Their cost may be slightly higher, yes. But the insurance industry is built on the premiums paid by healthy young single guys who rarely use any services.

In my case it was, but obviously that could vary. A family plan is clearly going to be at least 2.5 times more and likely at least 3. The 4x comes from a very generous premium for an individual that currently is below market rate.

The whole thing was started by bigfan's assertion that they should also charge more for kids if they charge for fat people. They do. If a premium was doubled for anyone who weighed over 350 pounds it would be similar as how premiums are at least 3 times higher for those with kids, and in many cases, even if they just have a spouse.

Every insurance plan I've ever heard of has charged a family a different rate than an individual. They are paying for the cost of extra kids by the rate that is most of the time significantly more.