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?”

Legit question.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

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.

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That was jerk store comment.

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

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

What if someone's just big-boned?

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Wouldn't make this about choices. Just that statistically, it should cost more.

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

Smokers should have to pay more.

It would be harder to enforce for obese people, but without a documented medical condition I am sure something could be worked out.

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!

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

How did your rates go up because of other people's children?

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

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

We have a "wellness credit" at work. If your biometrics meet the requirements or you are showing improvement in at least one area every year, as well as a few other minor things, you get the credit.

I've said fuck it for the last three years and just paid the extra money.

This is not applicable to douchebag's example.

Growing up, did you pay the same auto insurance rates as a female member of your family? Me either. I(MU) didn't choose to be male, but I was deemed to be a higher risk.

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A fat guy vs. a heavy smoker in the parking lot at noon!

The loser pays the higher premium.

Fight decided by who's wheezing less after 5 minutes.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

How does you having kids make me pay more for my insurance policy? Just because the overall cost?

Ugie, don't do this....you were just starting to become likable.

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what about employees who have abortions?

Are we talking about a policy being issued before or after the cancer diagnosis?

Good question. I assume he chicken-shat the answer.

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.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

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.

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Freedom is our Strength.

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.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

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 IMU subsidizing the ER visits of your kid.

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Freedom is our Strength.

Exactly, which is why individual insurance for people without kids or a spouse is still expensive. It's about the risk and the risk that an individual runs up a $250k bill is on average the same as with those kids. Kids are more expensive but so are older adults.

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.

No, I want to pay the cost to stop my neighbor's home from burning down. Where are you getting that idea?

I don't want to pay for some guy 10 miles away who doesn't help provide the services the other 364 days a year. I also wouldn't support my insurance paying for someone who wasn't a policy holder(though the government does do this anyways).

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

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.

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Freedom is our Strength.

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.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

What if the kids are obese?

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Freedom is our Strength.

Same for me, which is why I was initially confused about Big Fan's comment.

Here's what people don't seem to understand. Insurance is all about managing risk. A company insures people of various risk levels. The risks are used to set the cost.

But if you think that raising rates on smokers, fat people, other various higher-risk members of a group is going to result in reduced costs for you (a person who I assume is in perfect physical condition, has no "bad" habits, and never indulges in any risky behavior) rather than increased profits for the insurance company, I think you're pretty naive.

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Freedom is our Strength.