delay on bill/SC: charge obese employees higher premiums

[katty]

http://www.counton2.com/cbd/news/local/local_govtpolitics/article/obese_state_employees_could_pay_extra_for_health_insurance/20427/

AP with additional reporting by Brooke Katz
Published: February 11, 2009

South Carolina lawmakers have delayed voting on whether to charge obese public employees higher premiums in the state health insurance plan.

A Senate Finance subcommittee delayed its vote Tuesday. Republican Sen. Greg Ryberg of Aiken said he would be willing to rewrite his bill as a way to reward healthy residents rather than punish overweight workers.

Ryberg said he hopes to have it back on the agenda within a month.

Ryberg said too many residents are overeating and not exercising. He said their deliberate decisions not to take care of themselves are costing the state. He said he wants to motivate people to live healthier.

[DJ13]

1. First it was smokers, now obese people

Next it could be something you do that bothers others.

Discrimination doesnt have to be based on skin color or sexual preference.

Intolerance is still intolerance.

[katty]

2. precisely

[Hello_Kitty]

3. That doesn't motivate people to be healthier.

It motivates them to drop their insurance. What happens if we get universal single payer? Mandatory fat farms? Slippery slope to totalitarianism.