Obesity Health Costs - Who Should Pay?

Lose Weight or Pay Higher Health Costs for Obesity

Monetary incentives to decrease obesity are being used by health insurance companies and lose-weight-or-pay-plans are being developed. Do you think that health insurance costs should be higher because medical costs are higher for the obese?

We should do everything we can to lose extra pounds.

No, many times a tendency to be overweight is in the genes. There are some (many) that can prevent obesity simply by eating right and exercising often, but there are others that really struggle their whole life because of genes. Because we can't pick and choose who has a gene problem and who just needs to suck it up and eat right, we have to be fair. I think doctors and health care professionals should help more in aiding people to lose weight. I also think we should invest more in prevention by giving/offering health classes to new parents and taking soda/candy machines out of schools and making sure kids are playing during recess and taking away their PSPs... I hate those things. I worked with kids for a long time and during recess they would be eating chips and sitting on the grass playing their PSP games. They are becoming more and more overweight and it makes me sad.

Well, why shouldn't they be? If you are a smoker or have a history of heart problems in your family you have higher premiums. If the research shows that people that are overweight have more health problems then they should pay for it. We are already paying too much for health insurance because of all the people that don't have it and use the emergency room as a primary care physician, I don't want to pay for overweight people now too.