An interesting topic that I talked about a couple of days ago. The concept of obese people paying more for healthcare. Some people say yes, as it is their fault and choice that they have become obese. Others say no, because some have genetic problems or obesity is a disease just as any other. There are several different points against and for the topic.

No, they should just not be fat. Problem solved
...besides people won't stand for descrimination.

If only it were that easy, my friend. In my perspective I agree, it most take a lot of work sustaining obesity but I am luckily not in that situation, so I truthfully wouldn't know.

Now back on track.

Discrimination? Well smokers have to pay more for healthcare, and teenage boys who are 16 have to pay A LOT more for car insurance than any other group. It seems discrimination isn't that big of an obstacle for increasing costs.

depends whether their weight is relative to the situation. If it's something that will require more work because they're fat then yes, if not then they should be treated the same.

Now how would you go about knowing if they will cost more? They have higher risks of a lot of diseases that require more equipment, plus since they are obese they do require special tables and ambulances. Also their living situation combined with their severity is another factor, showing if they need extra people to become extracted in an emergency, or a forklift. There are so many factors so it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to find out if they will need more equipment.

The fatter you are, the higher risk you are for many diseases, so you get charged a higher premium. It's the same thing as car insurance where if you have a higher risk of crashing your rates are way higher.

Uhh, treatment for the obese isn't any more difficult than treating people who aren't. If their weight does force the doctors to use alternate methods of treatment to compensate for it, and it's more expensive, then yes

If it's just to encourage people to be skinnier because it's healthier and could prevent the treatments they'd potentially be paying more for, that's legally considered discrimination and would never work. Anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of the law would know that.

Quote from Exilement

Uhh, treatment for the obese isn't any more difficult than treating people who aren't. If their weight does force the doctors to use alternate methods of treatment to compensate for it, and it's more expensive, then yes

If it's just to encourage people to be skinnier because it's healthier and could prevent the treatments they'd potentially be paying more for, that's legally considered discrimination and would never work. Anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of the law would know that.

I see where you're going with the "treatment for the obese isn't any more difficult than treating people who aren't." but it would make sense because they are simply more likely to need treatment. Not that the treatment is generally more expensive

Quote from Dinomut

It's the same thing as car insurance where if you have a higher risk of crashing your rates are way higher.

Er, no, it's not. Insurance /= healthcare.

Insurance is able to put money towards the people they cover because only a small percentage of people paying for coverage actually need to take money from the company for healthcare or car repairs or whatever. People who are considered to be high risk need to pay more because they're more likely to take money from what's essentially a collected pool of funds. In a way, people who collect insurance take funds from those who don't need to. That's why with insurance, high-risk meaning higher premiums is reasonable.

With healthcare, it's just the individual paying for it. People with pre-existing conditions such as obesity do have to pay more for health insurance, but the actual health care should not be more expensive because it's dealt with on an individual basis. And since obese individuals aren't more expensive to treat than skinny people with the same conditions, price shouldn't be different between them

oooooohhhhhhh...

You win =p

That was beautifully done, Exiliment.

Quote from Veteran Noob

An interesting topic that I talked about a couple of days ago. The concept of obese people paying more for healthcare. Some people say yes, as it is their fault and choice that they have become obese. Others say no, because some have genetic problems or obesity is a disease just as any other. There are several different points against and for the topic.

...No, of course not. They're fat. :heh:

Quote from Exilement

Er, no, it's not. Insurance /= healthcare.

Insurance is able to put money towards the people they cover because only a small percentage of people paying for coverage actually need to take money from the company for healthcare or car repairs or whatever. People who are considered to be high risk need to pay more because they're more likely to take money from what's essentially a collected pool of funds. In a way, people who collect insurance take funds from those who don't need to. That's why with insurance, high-risk meaning higher premiums is reasonable.

With healthcare, it's just the individual paying for it. People with pre-existing conditions such as obesity do have to pay more for health insurance, but the actual health care should not be more expensive because it's dealt with on an individual basis. And since obese individuals aren't more expensive to treat than skinny people with the same conditions, price shouldn't be different between them

Thats fantastic, if the individual already has preexisting conditions. However, this debate is about if they should be charged more in the start, because of their high risk to develop these conditions. If a doctor checks you individually, and then sees your obese, should that be a factor that will increase you costs?

Lol, people paying for healthcare.

Quote from Automaton

Lol, people paying for healthcare.

This.

Obese people should probably pay more towards the NHS because they are more likely to take out of it and in this case healthcare does equal insurance, but when you're paying for the individual treatment you should only have to pay the marginal cost of you being treated + the standard profit margin.