CHARGING SMOKERS AND THE OBESE MORE FOR
HEALTH INSURANCE
PROF. JOHN BANZHAF'S LETTER PUBLISHED IN
THE WASHINGTON POST
Just a few comments on the article "Who
Pays for the Self-Indulgent" [Vital Statistics, Jan. 3].
At a time when the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)
estimates that 60 percent to 80 percent of all health care costs are
directly related to life-style choices like smoking or improper eating habits,
readers like Rand Miller [Letters, Dec. 24] and John S. Pulizzi [Jan.
4] are surely correct in arguing that the majority who live healthy
lives should not continue to be forced to bear these enormous costs
through higher taxes and higher health insurance premiums. On the other
hand, as reader Roger L. Gilkeson (Letters, Jan. 4) points out, it is
impractical to hold up health care pending a determination of the cause
of the disease, and inhumane to cut off the treatment if the disease is
the fault of the patient.
The simple, fair and workable solution is to require smokers, the obese
and others to pay their fair share of health care costs through higher
insurance premiums based upon their life styles -- a policy already
recommended by the NAIC. In the case of smoking,
it is already working for a growing number of insurance companies and
is permitted even for HMOs by a recent government decision.
Such differential insurance rates insure that the majority are not
forced to subsidize the self-indulgences of the minority and provide a
strong economic incentive for people to change before it is too late.
Isn't it time that at least one Washington-area HMO or health insurance
carrier offered nonsmokers an opportunity to pay the lower rates they
should be entitled to?
Washington Post [02/28/89]