Gol Body Toll

In Alabama, obese government employees will be required to pay more for their medical insurance. Makes sense. Risky car drivers pay more insurance premiums as their driving habits will likely result in an insurance claim. We pay more home owners insurance for living in a 100-year flood zone, or for being far away from a fire hydrant. Similarly, risky borrowers pay more interest on loans.

So, why not apply the same logic for health insurance? More risk = more cost. Some argue that it would be an unfair practice, as some are genetically predisposed to growing big. I feel that only a small % of people will fall into this category, and case-by-case exceptions can be made in those situations. But most of the time, we are big simply because we eat more than we need.

The government tried health initiatives, the carrots (literally and figuratively!), and they didn't work. So, stick is the way to go now! Money is an effective motivational tool. We don't take serious things seriously, until they start hurting our pockets.

I see weight-loss commercials on TV with models who lost 250 pounds on diets! Good for them. But what bothers me is, even with all that loss, they are typically 50 pounds heavier than normal-sized people! So, we obviously will feel good about ourselves, and splurge, as we see some room for growth! It sounds silly, but over-acceptance of human weaknesses can be bad. We just can't underestimate our capability for doing stupid things (like wars) when they are widely accepted as way of life.

A good example of dividents due to strong negative perception of a nasty habit is, reduction of smoking in the USA. It is great to see so many strong-willed people (who were weak-willed when the started the habit, of course) managed to break themselves free from this highly addictive habit. Smoking is not macho any more. I remember while at UNO, one of our Deans came to the office in a wheel chair, dressed as sick Joe Camel and it made a big impact on a couple of my smoker friends.