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Is it true obamacare will fine smoker $600 to enroll in the Affordable Care Act?

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Type: Question • Score: 10 • Views: 3,377 • Replies: 57

[+3] - Butrflynet - 10/21/2013I don't think you will find any insurance policy before or after Obamacare that does not penalize smokers with higher premiums. Quit smoking already.
[+3] - Thomas - 10/25/2013And what are the actuarial results after accounting for the benefits to insurance companies of people dying younger? Why won't banks give people a better deal on annuities if they tell them they're...

@pav64,

I don't think you will find any insurance policy before or after Obamacare that does not penalize smokers with higher premiums.

Quit smoking already.

2 Replies

@Butrflynet,

Isn't the point of the ACA to lower the costs of insurance? Wouldn't smoking count as a preexisting condition?

2 Replies

@Baldimo,

Long answer? No. Smoking isn't a preexisting condition. It's a self-inflicted condition.

1 Reply

@pav64,

I haven't heard that pav, so can't comment. Insurance providers for company group insurance companies are allowed a 50% increase in premiums, however. Whether this applies anywhere else, or not, I don't know.

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@tsarstepan,

For the most part, so is obesity. Would it be ok for an insurance company to charge fat people more for their insurance. Or how about anyone who happens to have a higher liftstyle risk? Extreme athletes, people who race cars or climb mountains?

1 Reply

@pav64,

The way it is worded via my insurance is that if you do not smoke you get a discount.

Same thing really but giving someone a discount sounds much nicer than charging or fining someone who smokes.

0 Replies

@Baldimo,

they do this with life insurance - older people, smokers, etc are all charged higher due to higher risk. Same should go in theory then with health insurance.

2 Replies

@Linkat,

So it's ok for smokers to pay higher insurance because they smoke but no one else has too? It seems that goes against the grain for the purpose of the ACA.

2 Replies

@Baldimo,

Smokers are a poorly organized herd of cash cows.

3 Replies

@roger,

Quote:

The Affordable Care Act — "Obamacare" to its detractors — allows health insurers to charge smokers buying individual policies up to 50 percent higher premiums starting next Jan. 1.

Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Obamacare-Smokers-Huge-Penalties/2013/01/26/id/487522#ixzz2iUIOIQZ7
Urgent: Should Obamacare Be Repealed? Vote Here Now!

i think we all know that smoking does not cause anything close to a 50% increase in healthcare costs, there is no sugarcoating it, this is blackmail.

wait, didnt Obama claim that we cant let blackmail work, that it is unAmerican

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@roger,

roger wrote:

Smokers are a poorly organized herd of cash cows.

the willingness of the American people to support vendetta's against people who smoke is the big problem. We will eventually find out that the state that gets away with this BS will eventually come after our procliviaties that it does not approve of.

1 Reply

@roger,

Smokers self-cause a lot of their/our own expensive health problems. I was one, I get it, some times in that twenty years, I smoked 3 packs a day, some tossed midway, but a lot of smoke I made welcome into my lungs, and I was one who liked menthol, now a baddie, or baddier,

I've recently been read in tests as pleasantly ok in health (what?) after extensive tests somewhat by mistake, the plotz from the pill, but I know myself as on the increasingly feeble side, possibly a product of vision, balance, and laziness. I now I have to get out there and move around.

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@Baldimo,

I'm not saying it is wrong or right - simply that it is.

It seems there is such a big push to get people to stop smoking and it is socially acceptable to be biased against smokers it is easier to promote than say someone who is overweight.

My doctor said to me, there are three things that will guarantee you a longer life (other things can help, but may not guarantee it) - not smoking, wearing a seatbelt and flossing.

I wonder if there can be a flossing clause in the health insurance policy as well.

2 Replies

@Linkat,

your doc is probably wrong. recent science concludes that a sizable number of people are genetically immune to ill effects from tobacco. Doctors have developed a disturbing lack of allegiance to facts and have decided that it is their job to manipulate people into practices that they want to see.

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

your doc is probably wrong. recent science concludes that a sizable number of people are genetically immune to ill effects from tobacco. Doctors have developed a disturbing lack of allegiance to facts and have decided that it is their job to manipulate people into practices that they want to see.

Source this unbelievable nonsense. And a single nonpeer reviewed short term study doesn't count.

1 Reply

@tsarstepan,

I am at work and dont know how to do that on my phone so let Google be your friend. this is pretty much accepted common knowledge in science, not unlike the fact that many people are immune from HIV. many people can not get cancer no matter what they do. some people are immune from nicotine. and so on. the problem right now is that we cant identify who can safely smoke.

1 Reply

@pav64,

No, there is no fine for smokers, but insurance companies are permitted to charge a higher premium to smokers to non-smokers (a ratio of 1:1.5 or 50% more).

1 Reply

@InsuranceLady,

InsuranceLady wrote:

No, there is no fine for smokers, but insurance companies are permitted to charge a higher premium to smokers to non-smokers (a ratio of 1:1.5 or 50% more).

"fine" works very well to reflect the reality here, the fact that prettier words are used by many to hide the reality goes to show how honesty in conversation is getting hard to come by in America.

1 Reply

@Linkat,

Linkat wrote:

I wonder if there can be a flossing clause in the health insurance policy as well.

there sort of is. there is a reason that dental benefits are usually quite good, esp around preventative care, in companies that offer health benefits

0 Replies

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