Overweight? Prepare to Pay Up

[Amelia]

Overweight? Prepare to Pay Up

Should Employers Be Able to Charge You for Being Overweight?

By TORY JOHNSON

Aug. 10, 2007

ABC News

With health-care costs rising, some large employers are taking radical new steps to cut corners: They're charging overweight employees a fee if they don't slim down.

http://clubadventist.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=137423#Post137423

[Dr. Shane]

I guess that would be OK since drivers with a bad record pay more for auto insurance. Those with health risks they can manage, like weight, should contribute more. That said, I still favor universal health care.

Perhaps restaurants should charge overweight people more for their food. That would provide a good incentive to slim down since they would get cheaper food.

Bare in mind, until recently I was 15 lbs overweight myself and am all too familiar with the struggle to control one's weight.

[Neil D]

I guess that would be OK since drivers with a bad record pay more for auto insurance. Those with health risks they can manage, like weight, should contribute more. That said, I still favor universal health care.

[Dr. Shane]

The idea about restaurants would include fast food, perhaps even the supermarket. Of course it will never happen but it has been tossed around on talk radio for a number of years. The idea is that each restaurant or supermarket has a scale and measuring rod. Before a person pays for their food they have to step on the scale. If they are overweight, an extra 10% - 20% gets added on the bill.

Quote:

the better way is to remove all cars [except public vehicles] from within any city and use mass transportation, which causes you to walk a block or two to get to where you need to shop for the things you need.

Clean up the environment, lessen dependence on foreign oil and slim down America. Why aren't we doing this already? Selfishness. Selfish Americans want to drive to work and not walk or wait.

It is noteworthy that many immigrants put on a lot of weight after moving to America.

Quote:

tell us how you did it?

Actually, my weight wasn't bothering me too much. However when my wife decided to go on the Herbalife diet, I decided to support her and also compete a bit with her by going on the Slim Fast diet. I lost about 20 pounds on the Slim Fast diet before I started to fine tune it a bit by getting rid of the high sugar products and replacing them with high-fiber, low fat products of equal calories. I then lost about another 5 - 8 pounds before going off the diet. I started out at 182 and now vary between 153 and 158. I have been off the diet for about a month but still watching what and how much I eat. My wife has dropped from 25 pounds so our weight-loss has been about the same although she is still on the Herbalife diet.

It is hard to believe I lost 20 pounds on a diet of milk shakes and chocolate bars. That just doesn't seem right, does it? But that is what the Slim Fast diet is.

[CyberGuy]

Charging more for overweight people could be dangerous. Lawsuits alleging bias against overweight people could be brought. Losing weight is not that easy. I know from experience.

[Dr. Shane]

Same argument could be used for charging different drivers more. A teenager pays more for car insurance. Auto insurance rates go down when a person gets married. People can sue for anything. That doesn't mean they would have a case.