There are a lot of employers, all across the United States, that are doing something new with their employer sponsored health insurance plans. Non-smokers are offered lower premiums than what is offered to smokers. Is this fair? A poll shows what the majority of Americans think about this issue.
Health insurance is expensive. Everyone who has ever tried to find an individual health insurance plan discovers this truth very quickly. Every employee who has had their employer take more out of their paycheck, in order to pay for health insurance premiums, is aware of this as well.
Employers want to cut down on the amount they spend on health insurance for their employees. They seem to be willing to do this by any means necessary. Some employers have stopped offering health insurance to part time workers. Others have made drastic cutbacks to what is covered in the health plans that they offer to full time workers.
A recent decision, that seems to be turning into a trend, is for employers to charge certain employees more for their health insurance. They have started to penalize workers who smoke by making them pay a higher premium than what their non-smoking co-workers would pay for the same type of health plan. Some employers are doing this to employees who are obese, as well. This is a rather controversial decision.
Or, is it? The latest NPR- Thomson Reuters Health Poll reveals what people really think about these types of health insurance decisions. The poll included 3,000 adults, and it was conducted by telephone. People were asked their opinion on specific questions, and the results were gathered up.
Should smokers pay more for health insurance than non-smokers? The majority of Americans, 59%, say yes. Almost three quarters of the people who earn $100,000 (or more) a year believe that smokers should pay more. Around 70% of people who have a college degree (or a higher degree), also said they were in support of charging smokers more for health insurance.
What do the smokers think? Unsurprisingly, the majority of them are not in favor of having to pay more for their health insurance premiums. Less than a third of them said that they were in support of making smokers pay more for health insurance.
Is it ok to make people who are overweight, or obese, pay more for health insurance? Not as many people are in favor of this idea. 69% of people who took the poll were opposed to making people who are overweight or obese have to pay a higher premium for health insurance. This means that 31% of people said that they thought it was acceptable to make people who were obese or overweight pay higher rates for health insurance.
It is worth noting that around two thirds of all Americans are overweight or obese. This pretty much equates to the percentage of people who do not want to see a higher premium rate imposed on people who are obese or overweight.
So, what have we learned? My take on this is that people are ok with the idea of charging a certain group more for health insurance than another group. Unless, of course, they are included in the group that has to spend more on health insurance.
Image by Curran Kelleher on Flickr