Nicotine users not alone anymore in the health insurance game...

[jfalbanese]

i won't even see a doctor until i am 1 year cig free. as for the insurers out there. with the implementation of Obama care more options are on the way. i don't know if i am going to sign on with my company, or look elsewhere for coverage. after October there should be more information out there for all of us.

 

[MsComptrtchr]

Does anyone know how long a person must be nicotine free before it doesn't show up on tests? I mean, there is a possibility of dropping down to 0 nic for some of us who want to try. I know there are people here who do it.

 

[DeeDee1234]

first they came for the xxxxx, and we didn't care because we were not xxxxx's
Then they came for the yyyy, and we didn't care because we were not yyyy's
Then then came for the zzzz, and noboady care because they were not zzzz's
And then they came for me, and nobody cared bacause they had already been taken.

when will we learn.. as a society.

 

[EddardinWinter]

Does anyone know how long a person must be nicotine free before it doesn't show up on tests? I mean, there is a possibility of dropping down to 0 nic for some of us who want to try. I know there are people here who do it.

2-4 days. Depending on the test parameters, usually 48 hours is enough for a urine test.

As to health insurance setting premiums through height and weight charts, that is a ridiculous bad joke. This is at best slight correlation with health for most people. True, it does find morbidly obese people. I am technically overweight and borderline obese because I am 6'2" and 225 pounds. To be a healthy weight, I would have to weigh 186. This weight is not a healthy weight for me. How can a chart determine my health? I have wide shoulders and a heavy frame, any weight under 200 for me is not healthy.

I will have nicotine in my system if I am tested for it. What are the health risks of nicotine? Not smoking, just nicotine use? Now I currently do not have a penalty or whatever for either of these things. Rest assured, however, this is the way it will be done in the future for everyone.

I use nicotine and caffeine to regulate my ADHD, so zero nicotine is just not happening for me. I cannot function properly if I don't have both of these things. The treatment choice of the medical experts? Ritalin or Adderall. I will never, ever take either of these drugs for any reason.

 

[DeeDee1234]

Does anyone know how long a person must be nicotine free before it doesn't show up on tests? I mean, there is a possibility of dropping down to 0 nic for some of us who want to try. I know there are people here who do it.

30 days for most subtances.

 

[bnrkwest]

Sadly insurance companies rule the medical world. It is all about "wording" things. Insurance Co's do NOT want to pay for medical things. I have worked in insurance and the medical field so know a bit about how they work. Medical has to dance on eggs to be sure a test fits the criteria for coverage and wording is everything. Insurance sees one little health issue and wamo, out you go. It is not pretty. Using this new guideline is just another excuse to take your money. I was also cancelled by insurance once because I smoked, so they have the sledge hammer in hand. Eek can't stand insurance! LOL bnrk

 

[317Vapers]

what ticks me off to no end is they want to charge you higher rates etc. and even employers like Eli-Lily (while i used to do union construction) when you work on their job if you get caught smoking your banned for life, you get caught failing a drug test, no matter what drug, they will send you to rehab pay for it and allow you back on their property to work). and insurance companies are about the same way these days. I'm not a smoker I vape. I'm vaping to lower my nic levels to eventually 0mg. I feel like they should be praising people for trying to quit and stay off stinkies not raise their rates.

 

[trishdadish]

This is just two ways of marketing the same concept. The problem is with the for-profit insurance paradigm itself, and the unbridled power insurance companies wield over ordinary people.

There shouldn't be any such thing as "health insurance", because there's no aggregate risk/reward factor at work, and health care can be accepted as a fixed social cost and delivered as needed as a fixed public expense. In other words, though we don't know what, if any, health care costs might be incurred by any given individual in the next year, people in large numbers are statistically predictable, so we know there will be x number of new cancers, x number of people who fall down the stairs and break their nose etc... Insurance companies are, essentially, bookies; speculators in human misery and tragedy, laying bets and profiting on the "action", except that— unlike bookies— they hire armies of lawyers to avoid paying out whenever they can because they have the power and the resources to do so.

Everyone wins if you take the profiteering out of health care delivery except a handful of oligarchs.

You truly see the big picture. I'm soooo glad I live in Canada.

 

[TyPie]

GMA: Hidden Costs in Hospital Bills - ABC News

I saw this report when it originally aired, and it is MIND-boggling. Yet, it is something that we are all pretty much generally aware of---------the MASSIVE FRAUD in the health care industry. ($200 for an aspirin, $100 for the paper medicine delivery system [the little paper pill cup], and on, and on, and on, and on.) If the bills that hospitals alone create were cleaned up and subject to legal and moral scrutiny due to the fraud alone, my guess is that half of the problem goes away overnight. There is something seriously wrong with medical BILLING.

Another question: If your doctor tells you that you need an operation, do you ask how much it will cost? Do you shop around for the best 'price'? A recent study suggests (and we all know this instinctively as well, WITHOUT the need for studies---wish I could quote the exact study and source) the SAME operation can cost many thousands, and TENS of thousands of dollars more or less from doctor to doctor. I'm not talking about new, revolutionary procedures that have never been attempted before, I'm talking about common, rote procedures that are straightforward and commonplace. Of course, you want the best doctor to perform your operation, but it seems that the wealthiest (or those that have the best insurance) among us are currently driving the market for medical services. The BILLING aspect of it all is where, IMHO, the rubber meets the road.
What likely happens now for an insured patient is, your doctor recommends an operation, you schedule it, have it done, and you don't even see, or don't even look at, a bill. The actual billing of insurance companies is where a massive problem exists.

(The jist of the problem? Insurance is a bit like crack .............. for those that are able to bill the insurance companies.......and you thought being addicted to nicotine was a problem??)

That said, the health care industry / health insurance industry is massive, and not easily fixed. It is a Pandora's box.
I can say for certain, though, that the costs are completely out of control, and probably more often than not, not at all justified. One answer, I firmly believe, is to clean up the outright fraud in the billing aspect for medical services.

 

[yerdreamsrequiem]

Does anyone know how long a person must be nicotine free before it doesn't show up on tests? I mean, there is a possibility of dropping down to 0 nic for some of us who want to try. I know there are people here who do it.

Nicotine is out of your system relatively quickly. Quick enough that the physical addiction is gone in less than a week. I would say 3-4 days typically, so long as you keep yourself hydrated. It may even be quicker if you were to near-drown yourself in an antioxidant, like cranberry juice.

 

[ScottP]

Obamacare has only made this worse.

That said, the auto insurance industry has been profiling for decades based on age, sex, marital status, county you live in, and driving record. All of these things determine your insurance premium.

 

[Hill]

that's one way to completely overreact...
the purpose of penalizing bad health and eating habits is to increase wellness so that healthcare costs go down. regardless of how you view BMI's accuracy, or what your definition of obesity is, if you are a sedentary smoker that eats fast food and junk food, you are at a much higher risk of developing myriad chronic diseases down the line.

the purpose of these screenings, and the reasons they are free, is to get rid of copays and deductibles for preventative care so that even if people aren't feeling sick, they still go to the doctor and get a baseline on their numbers because it costs them no money out of pocket, and could result in a premium decrease. if in a year's time, their numbers improve, it COULD result in a premium reduction for their health insurance at renewal. the other purpose is to get people to go to the doctor to find undiagnosed issues, that if left untreated, will result in massive bills to the individual, their employer, and the health insurance company that wrote the policy.

and just to briefly defend the health insurance companies, the goal here isn't for them to not pay claims, it's to get people medical attention before their maladies are terminal. ie, early stage cancers, heart disease, diabetes.

The purpose of these screanings is for the insurance companies to make more money they dont care about you or your health as long as you give them money and if they can say "your fat, unhealthy, smoker etc. so you have to pay more" is just them looking for new and creative ways to screw the public out of even more money than they already do.

 

[stevegmu]

I have a single payer system at work- aka flat rate. We do get incentives to get our numbers checked, but neither the insurance company, nor work get the results. What we do with the numbers is up to us. I actually went to see my doctor, got on a diet, cut out sugar, cut out soda altogether, cut out fast food- except for Subway, started an exercise program, have since lost over 30lbs and have gotten my numbers down well within a healthy range. I probably would not have done this, had we not been offered the healthy incentives credits. We also get another incentive for pledging we are tobacco free for at least 3 months. Doesn't say anything about nicotine, though. Oddly they will pay for nicotine gum, the patch, Chantix and lozenges, but not e-cigarettes. The incentives add up to half of the monthly deduction. Unfortunately, thanks to the 'affordable' care act- they actually sent us a letter stating this, our 80/20 system will be eliminated for next year, and we have to choose a health savings account, which, for me, will cost significantly more than what I currently pay, as we will be paying for everything out of pocket once we exhaust the $400 they put in our account, until we hit the high deductible.