W.Va. PEIA considers charging fat workers more - AP Featured News - The Charleston Gazette

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October 23, 2009

W.Va. PEIA considers charging fat workers more

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The Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Overweight state workers in West Virginia could start paying more for health insurance.

At the urging of Gov. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency's Finance Board voted Thursday to seek public comment on the idea.

Director Ted Cheatham said the governor is interested in finding ways to promote healthier lifestyles and to control health-care costs.

Cheatham said higher premiums might encourage workers to lose weight.

PEIA already charges smokers $25 more a month than nonsmokers.

Last week, North Carolina's public employee health insurance program announced that it will start charging higher premiums for overweight policy holders, beginning in July 2011.

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4 Comments on "W.Va. PEIA considers charging fat workers more"
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Posted By: jd1smith (8:44am 10-24-2009)

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Many state employees alreday pay an enhanced premium and deductible for being educated and holding degrees.This due to the salary based premium. If PEIA wants to impose additional underwriting, then it needs to go to equal premium and deductible. The real problem is it can't off set the low premiums and deductibles it has for in the salary based social engineering experiment.
Lets run PEIA like a business as King Joe states he wants to run the state. Lets fire the inept management and hire some individuals that have experience in running a successful insurance like employee benefit program.

Posted By: melmelt5 (1:03am 10-24-2009)

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PEIA wants EVERYONE deemed "obese" to pay higher premiums. Some people are overweight due to medical conditions they did not choose to have or because their genetic makeup does not allow them to be skinny. Smoking is a CHOICE. But, PEIA gives smokers a solution to paying higher premiums by paying for the patch so they can quit. But, PEIA does not pay for weight-loss medications to give overweight people the chance to quit being fat. Granted, some overweight people are that way because of their unhealthy lifestyle. However, this is an overall attempt to punish all overweight people regardless of the cause of their obesity. Next thing we know, PEIA will want to start punishing people for having cancer because that results in higher costs for medical care too. Oh, and by the way, pacaderm, I've seen some pretty fat Republicans who are insured by PEIA. Let's not forget to include them too because eveyone knows that political party affiliation is the "major" cause of obesity.

Posted By: agusta55 (5:06pm 10-23-2009)

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PEIA and other insurers routinely charge smokers a higher premium due to the potentail of higher medical treatment costs, so why shouldn't obese PEIA receipients pay more in premiums. Seems logical and fair to me.

Posted By: pacaderm (12:09am 10-23-2009)

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Hell yes! Charge these fat Democrats more!!!

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