Alabama Will Make Obese Pay More
Written by Jane Tucker | Tuesday, 26 August 2008 | There are 0 comments
The State of Alabama has issued a year’s deadline
The American State of Alabama is beginning to take the problem of obesity extremely seriously and has come up with a controversial plan to make obese State employees conscious of the burden that they place on it and make them pay for it. Under the new rules any state employee who is overweight or obese will forfeit his or her right to free health insurance and instead will be required to pay $25 a month to be covered.
With almost 40,000 State employees many of whom are overweight it is expected that many of them will head to the gym and start reducing their calorie intake. The State of Alabama has issued a year’s deadline to enable the employees to lose weight before they have to start paying the health insurance supplement.
Alabama is the first American State to penalise overweight and obese citizens and previously has enacted legislation which also means that smokers who are government employees also have to pay extra for their health insurance.
Along with weight problems government employees will also be subjected to free medical testing to establish whether they have any health problems such as high cholesterol, hypertension or dangerous blood sugar levels and should these be found they will have to enrol in programs to correct the problem.
Accusations have been levelled at the Alabama legislators that they are trying to run a “nanny state” and that they have no right to interfere in the eating habits of its citizens. However with the huge medical cost of obesity becoming more and more apparent every year all over America some normal weight and healthy citizens say it is unfair that they have to pay for the health bills of their fellow obese citizens.
Probably the most effective part of this $25 supplement that the obese and unhealthy citizens will have to pay is that it will highlight to them the increased health dangers of being overweight and they will be reminded of this every time they pay their extra health insurance supplement.
