I have said this before; and others have more-or-less agreed with the concept. When a person buys their own insurance, they are rated based on many factors, and they pay more or less than others based on the risk pool to which they are assigned. Smokers pay more for private health care insurance, in recognition of the fact that they represent a higher risk of incurring health care costs. But at least in theory, people have a choice - they don't have to buy insurance.
Now as we move into the realm of state-controlled health insurance, if not actual nationalized or socialized medicine, we have a new situation. When everybody pays, and it is mandatory that they both participate and pay, as one person on MT has pointed out, if it's my tax dollars, I should have a say in how they are spent. And right they are. When the state picks up the tab, it means the taxpayer is picking it up. And that changes things.
Here we have a bill proposed in the state of Utah, proposing higher copays for smokers using Medicaid (a form of state-provided health care for a certain class of citizens). The person proposing this law is a Republican - surprised? The point is simple and logical; smokers cost the state more, so they should pay more. And of course, there is the argument that the higher copays may encourage smokers to quit.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health...harge-for-Utah-smokers-on-Medicaid/52893970/1
All true. But this is precisely what I've been saying, and I'm often accused of 'slippery slope' arguments, that these things will never happen, that they don't happen now, so there is no reason to assume they will happen in the future.
Well guess what, folks. We're not even fully into the new Obamacare regime (2014 for full implementation) and it's already starting. If the taxpayers have to pay for your health care, they get a say in how it's provided and what's covered and so on.
That means, if you are a smoker, prepare to pay more; or be denied coverage. Do not be shocked when it becomes law that you have to stop smoking.
And if you think that's fine and dandy because smoking is bad anyway, remember the factors that cost us the most in health care expenses.
Drunk driving. Yes, DUI costs us a fortune. Prepare to see alcohol drinkers pay more, and then see alcohol made illegal to drink.
Being fat.
Being out-of-shape.
Skydiving or engaging in extreme sports.
Do I need to go on?
Please tell me again how this will never happen in the USA. I love to hear those, because I know that six months or a year later, I can shove them back in your face with the 'new reality' and you'll go all quiet and refuse to answer, because let's face it, I'm right, and you're wrong.
Dictatorship is coming to the USA. And universal health care is the horse it rides. In ten years, you'll think I was Nostra-fricken-damus.
Now as we move into the realm of state-controlled health insurance, if not actual nationalized or socialized medicine, we have a new situation. When everybody pays, and it is mandatory that they both participate and pay, as one person on MT has pointed out, if it's my tax dollars, I should have a say in how they are spent. And right they are. When the state picks up the tab, it means the taxpayer is picking it up. And that changes things.
Here we have a bill proposed in the state of Utah, proposing higher copays for smokers using Medicaid (a form of state-provided health care for a certain class of citizens). The person proposing this law is a Republican - surprised? The point is simple and logical; smokers cost the state more, so they should pay more. And of course, there is the argument that the higher copays may encourage smokers to quit.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health...harge-for-Utah-smokers-on-Medicaid/52893970/1
All true. But this is precisely what I've been saying, and I'm often accused of 'slippery slope' arguments, that these things will never happen, that they don't happen now, so there is no reason to assume they will happen in the future.
Well guess what, folks. We're not even fully into the new Obamacare regime (2014 for full implementation) and it's already starting. If the taxpayers have to pay for your health care, they get a say in how it's provided and what's covered and so on.
That means, if you are a smoker, prepare to pay more; or be denied coverage. Do not be shocked when it becomes law that you have to stop smoking.
And if you think that's fine and dandy because smoking is bad anyway, remember the factors that cost us the most in health care expenses.
Drunk driving. Yes, DUI costs us a fortune. Prepare to see alcohol drinkers pay more, and then see alcohol made illegal to drink.
Being fat.
Being out-of-shape.
Skydiving or engaging in extreme sports.
Do I need to go on?
Please tell me again how this will never happen in the USA. I love to hear those, because I know that six months or a year later, I can shove them back in your face with the 'new reality' and you'll go all quiet and refuse to answer, because let's face it, I'm right, and you're wrong.
Dictatorship is coming to the USA. And universal health care is the horse it rides. In ten years, you'll think I was Nostra-fricken-damus.