Tobacco smokers to pay 50% more for Obamacare!

[Docliv]

Hi All,

Check this out. Penalty could keep smokers out of health overhaul - Yahoo! News

Not only is the FDA trying to eliminate e-cigs, but soon analog smokers will pay 50% more for health insurance. Talk about burning the candle at both ends. Whew!

 

[YKruss]

And don't forget that if particular insurance require a cotinine test then vapers will pay 50% more too.

 

[TennDave]

Right, because in their eyes, all nicotine users are Smokers.

 

[shelfield]

Thanks for posting this but unless there is some kind of test who would tell their doc that they use an ecig. I won't be!

 

[tommy2bad]

Thanks for posting this but unless there is some kind of test who would tell their doc that they use an ecig. I won't be!

And then you get sick require, hospitalization and they test you and then send you the bill because you didn't disclose a pertinent fact and invalidated your insurance.
It's testing for nic rather than smoking thats the problem and it's done because it easy and cheaper than testing for smoking. Oh and it indicates a propensity to relapse to smoking thus affecting your health risk. Ecigs upset the apple cart in so many ways that the whole system needs changing to accommodate their use.

 

[Petrodus]

Obama Care is a "Train Wreck"
No one even read the bill before voting it into law.
You think there's issues now ??
Lets talk again at the end of "Four More Years" !!

 

[Jetmec]

Apparently no one pays attention to what is going on in Washington. That's why we have Four More Years. And here is a really scary thought.
Dear GOPUSA Reader,

Only FDR has served more than two terms as President of The United States… but that could change with the introduction of H.J. Resolution 15.

New York Democrat Representative, Jose Serrano last week introduced a piece of legislation aimed at “an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President.”

All past efforts to repeal the 22nd Amendment have failed, but we believe this time it could be different due to an unprecedented economic force that’s underway right now.

To see all the details of why we believe Obama will remain in power through 2020, click [URL="http://www.gopusamedia.com/C/432/8558/1775536"]click here[/FONT]

Sincerely,

George Rayburn
Publisher, Stansberry Research

Obama Care is a "Train Wreck"
No one even read the bill before voting it into law.
You think there's issues now ??
Lets talk again at the end of "Four More Years" !!

 

[Petrodus]

Jetmec
The link doesn't work ... please re-post

PS: see my signature

 

[Vocalek]

And don't forget that if particular insurance require a cotinine test then vapers will pay 50% more too.

You are absolutely right, and there is no reason for an insurer to use a test that's definitive for smoking (i.e. exhaled carbon monoxide) because the Law specifies that the 50% surcharge can be levied against tobacco users, not "smokers." So what profit-minded insurance company would not take advantage of the government freely giving our money to their business?

See page 2 of this document: http://www.lung.org/stop-smoking/to...eet-tobacco-related-provisions-of-the-aca.pdf

 

[Petrodus]

Obama Care
Isn't that an Oxymoron ??

 

[Petrodus]

Apparently no one pays attention to what is going on in Washington. That's why we have Four More Years. And here is a really scary thought.
Dear GOPUSA Reader,

Only FDR has served more than two terms as President of The United States… but that could change with the introduction of H.J. Resolution 15.

New York Democrat Representative, Jose Serrano last week introduced a piece of legislation aimed at “an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President.”

All past efforts to repeal the 22nd Amendment have failed, but we believe this time it could be different due to an unprecedented economic force that’s underway right now.

To see all the details of why we believe Obama will remain in power through 2020, click [URL="http://www.gopusamedia.com/C/432/8558/1775536"]click here[/FONT]

Sincerely,

George Rayburn
Publisher, Stansberry Research

The link doesn't work
Found this one: Click Here

 

[Petrodus]

Interesting ...
There are countless groups petitioning the government

Place all members of the government under the same
healthcare legislation that ordinary citizens are,
with no exceptions


It is unfair for the government to mandate socialized healthcare
that they themselves are exempt from. The Founding Fathers
never intended for the government to be exempt from laws.
By placing yourselves above the law, you lack comprehension
of the impact of those laws.

Petition: Click Here

 

[McDougal]

Hi All,

Check this out. Penalty could keep smokers out of health overhaul - Yahoo! News

Not only is the FDA trying to eliminate e-cigs, but soon analog smokers will pay 50% more for health insurance. Talk about burning the candle at both ends. Whew!

The rate would still be lower under ObamaCare than under the current choices of health insurance. I don't see how this isn't justified. Smokers die earlier.

What isn't justified is a completely for-profit health care system that can deny you on a whim, under-insure you and charge you insane rates.

 

[Vocalek]

The rate would still be lower under ObamaCare than under the current choices of health insurance. I don't see how this isn't justified. Smokers die earlier.

What isn't justified is a completely for-profit health care system that can deny you on a whim, under-insure you and charge you insane rates.

You are aware, are you not, that the legislation does not say that the 50% surcharge applies only to SMOKERS -- the law states "tobacco users." That means that people who stopped smoking by switching to snus would have to pay the extra 50% even though snus users do NOT die earlier or have any higher health care costs.

Since nearly all the companies use a test for circulating nicotine, rather than the definitive test for smoking, exhaled carbon monoxide, that also means that former smokers who use an e-cigarette or chew nicotine gum will be subject to paying the extra money. So the charge is NOT justified across the board.

 

[Fiamma]

Signed the petition.

Signatures needed by February 07, 2013 to reach goal of 25,000, 10,191. E cig users should jump on this fast. Maybe if the government employees, Congress, courts, whitehouse, etc had to suffer along with the rest of us insurance would be less expensive.

Petition here: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pe...-ordinary-citizens-are-no-exceptions/5kJZJW4g

 

[Jimi D.]

 

[WillyB]

We would have been so much better off if we had elected a born rich member of a cult.

I think I would like to move to the Garden of Eden.

In 1838, Joseph Smith led a group of followers seventy miles north of present-day Kansas City, Missouri. There he founded a new settlement that he called Adam-ondi-Ahman. The place is significant in Mormon history for it is here that Smith claimed the first man, Adam, lived.

According to Smith, the Garden of Eden was located in Jackson County, Missouri

Idiots...

 

[Racehorse]

Hi All,

Check this out. Penalty could keep smokers out of health overhaul - Yahoo! News

Not only is the FDA trying to eliminate e-cigs, but soon analog smokers will pay 50% more for health insurance. Talk about burning the candle at both ends. Whew!

Not sure what has changed. 15 years ago my boss had a heart attack. Then another one, and then some bypass surgery. We were a very small workplace, all our insurance premiums went up. A lot! Of course, we werent' selfish people and we cared about him as a person, so we took it on, and really nobody was *outraged*. 100 people in the workplace, we were like a big family.

13 years ago, my insurance premiums doubled at other job. I went to HR to ask why. Age group of my coworkers was such that 30% of the females were having families/pregant that year, and several had either troublesome pregancies or troublesome births/premmmies etc. so the rest of us had to pay really high premiums.

Insurance has always penalized high cost health care problems........and there is no denying that smokers, based on ALL the actuary statistics available, have more sick days, and more health problems.

So, somebody has to pay for that, right?

Insurance operates on % and risk. I have a woodstove and my home insurance is quite a bit higher than those who don't. More risk, that's why.

Oh wait, I guess it's Obama's fault, he must not like woodstoves.

 

[Fiamma]

Not sure what has changed. 15 years ago my boss had a heart attack. Then another one, and then some bypass surgery. We were a very small workplace, all our insurance premiums went up. A lot! Of course, we werent' selfish people and we cared about him as a person, so we took it on, and really nobody was *outraged*. 100 people in the workplace, we were like a big family.

13 years ago, my insurance premiums doubled at other job. I went to HR to ask why. Age group of my coworkers was such that 30% of the females were having families/pregant that year, and several had either troublesome pregancies or troublesome births/premmmies etc. so the rest of us had to pay really high premiums.

Insurance has always penalized high cost health care problems........and there is no denying that smokers, based on ALL the actuary statistics available, have more sick days, and more health problems.

So, somebody has to pay for that, right?

Insurance operates on % and risk. I have a woodstove and my home insurance is quite a bit higher than those who don't. More risk, that's why.

Oh wait, I guess it's Obama's fault, he must not like woodstoves.

Perhaps you missed the point that non smokers ie vapers (US), are still going to be considered smokers and pay the increased premium even though we are no longer inhaling combustibles.

 

[Racehorse]

Perhaps you missed the point that non smokers ie vapers (US), are still going to be considered smokers and pay the increased premium even though we are no longer inhaling combustibles.

No, I actually did not.

Actuaries in insurance companies operate on percentages and risk analysis.


Is vaping 100% safe? Can we prove that vaping is at the same risk level as someone who doesn't smoke at all, doesn't inhale anything at all into their lungs except air?

If you cannot prove that, and there are no studies to prove that, then they are going to access a certain risk to that behavior. Ditto, to SNUS.


Is nicotine 100% safe? Not according to any surgeon I've ever had, since it does slow healing esp skin/wound healing. I needed elective surgery when I was smoking, could not find anyone to operate on me. I asked if I could just wear a nicotine patch, answer was no. There are ample studies on nicotine and delayed wound healing. My surgeons didn't make up nicotine's vasoconstrictive properties.


I sign each and every petition and write to my legislators to support vaping. But I don't take any of the rest of that stuff personally and am not about to develop a persecution complex over it. It's not fair, but since I am used to how insurance companies operate, I'm not suprised.

It's how insurance companies operate. I don't care who is President... they operated like that before obama, and are still doing it.

If anything, our legistlators should get insurance companies to change their practices. Therein lies the problem----in my lifetime, neither party has 'taken them on' ..... not really. I've known people who died while waiting for insurance companies to provide authorization for necessary medical treatment.

I've had to take an insurance company to court.....so I know all about *fighting* it out. I did that work. I know the song.