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Charging the Unhealthy More For Insurance

Posted by kdawson on from the no-carrots-for-you-here's-a-stick dept.

Joe The Dragon sends us a BusinessWeek story, run on Yahoo, about Clarian Health and the new thing they are trying with health insurance coverage for their employees. They are charging unhealthy people more. The article goes into some depth about whether this is a good idea and whether the practice might spread. "In late June, the Indianapolis-based hospital system announced that starting in 2009, it will fine employees $10 per paycheck if their body mass index (BMI, a ratio of height to weight that measures body fat) is over 30. If their cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose levels are too high, they'll be charged $5 for each standard they don't meet. Ditto if they smoke: Starting next year, they'll be charged another $5 in each check."

3 of 1,106 comments (clear)

  1. Re:and if you have a slashdot account by jguthrie · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, I don't think it's at odds with the summary, it's just that the BMI is a pretty useless measure of someone's health.

  2. Re:How not to do this by MojoRilla · · Score: 5, Informative
    The truth often does piss people off. From the article:

    After benchmarking other companies, Clarian, which had already been encouraging employees to join smoking cessation programs and take health risk tests, decided charging employees was more "transparent." Other companies "were providing what they called incentives through credits or discounts toward health premiums," says Wantz. "What we found was what those employers were doing, many times, was raising their premiums and discounting them back."
    I can't fault a company for being transparent. Even if it is news I don't like.
  3. Re:and if you have a slashdot account by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 5, Informative

    I can't GET freakin' insurance...

    You should check if your state has a state risk pool.

    I am also self employed, and since I got sick once years ago I also
    was not insurable through individual policies. A state risk pool gives people
    like me coverage when nobody else will.

    It's a little screwy because it is still a private insurer (at
    least in the state of Texas) that is contracted by the state.
    The premiums are set at double the average, so the private insurer
    makes loads of cash (and the tax payers don't take a hit), but at least I have insurance.

    The deductible is high, but I do get the negotiated rates
    which are usually 1/3 to 1/2 of what the uninsured are charged.