Alabammy says.....pay up if you're a porker!

It's easy to be judgmental and say "good deal" now that I'm healthy but I think I would've been pretty pissed about this prior to WLS. How about you guys?

Boner

If you want to be "big and beautiful".....you gonna pay!  

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Alabama, pushed to second in national obesity rankings by deep-fried Southern favourites, is cracking down on state workers who are too fat.

The state has given its 37,527 employees a year to start getting fit - or they’ll pay $25 a month for insurance that otherwise is free.

Alabama will be the first state to charge overweight state workers who don’t work on slimming down, while a handful of other states reward employees who adopt healthy behaviours.

Alabama already charges workers who smoke - and has seen some success in getting them to quit - but now has turned its attention to a problem that plagues many in the Deep South: obesity.

The State Employees’ Insurance Board this week approved a plan to charge state workers starting in January 2010 if they don’t have free health screenings.

If the screenings turn up serious problems with blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose or obesity, employees will have a year to see a doctor at no cost, enroll in a wellness program, or take steps on their own to improve their health. If they show progress in a follow-up screening, they won’t be charged. But if they don’t, they must pay starting in January 2011.

“We are trying to get individuals to become more aware of their health,” said state worker Robert Wagstaff, who serves on the insurance board.

Not all state employees see it that way.

“It’s terrible,” said health department employee Chequla Motley. “Some people come into this world big.”

Computer technician Tim Colley already pays $24 a month for being a smoker and doesn’t like the idea of another charge.

“It’s too Big Brotherish,” he said.

The board will apply the obesity charge to anyone with a body mass index of 35 or higher who is not making progress. A person five feet six inches tall weighing 220 pounds, for example, would have a BMI of 35.5. A BMI of 30 is considered the threshold for obesity.

The board has not yet determined how much progress a person would have to show and is uncertain how many people might be affected because everyone could avoid the charge by working to lose weight.

But that’s unlikely - government statistics show Alabamians have a big weight problem. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30.3 per cent are now obese, ranking the state behind only Mississippi.

E-K. Daufin of Montgomery, a college professor and founder of Love Your Body, Love Yourself, which holds body acceptance workshops, said the new policy will be stressful for people like her.

“I’m big and beautiful and doing my best to keep my stress levels down so I can stay healthy,” Daufin said. “That’s big, not lazy, not a glutton and certainly not deserving of the pompous, poisonous disrespect served up daily to those of us with more bounce to the ounce.”

A recent study suggested that about half of overweight people and nearly a third of obese people have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels, while about a quarter of people considered to be normal weight suffer from the ills associated with obesity.

Walter Lindstrom, founder of the Obesity Law and Advocacy Center in California, said he’s concerned that all overweight Alabama employees will get is advice to walk more and broil their chicken.

“The state will feel good about itself for offering something and the person of size will end up paying $300 a year for the bad luck of having a chronic disease his/her state-sponsored insurance program failed to cover in an appropriate and meaningful fashion,” he said.

William Ashmore, executive director of the State Employees’ Insurance Board, said the state will spend an extra $1.6 million next year on screenings and wellness programs, but should see significant long-term savings.

Ashmore said research shows someone with a body mass index of 35 to 39 generates $1,748 more in annual medical expenses than someone with a BMI less than 25, considered normal.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a few states offer one-time financial incentives for pursuing healthy lifestyles. Ohio workers, for instance, get $50 for having health assessments and another $50 for following through with the advice.

Arkansas and Missouri go a step further, offering monthly discounts on premiums for employees who take health risk assessments and participate in wellness programs to reduce obesity, stress and other health problems.

Alabama’s new policy is drawing no objection from the lobbying group representing state workers.

Mac McArthur, executive director of Alabama State Employees Association, said the plan is not designed to punish employees.

“It’s a positive,” he said.

Alabama, just like any business in these tight ass times, is trying to cut expenses.  I think it would be a safe bet to say that even if they charged every state employee $25 for their insurance it would not come close to actual cost for Alabama.  Hells bells - I'd love to find health insurance for $25/mo!

That's interesting... and par for the course here in good ole' 'Bama.  Wonder if they will start checking the family/spouses of state employees as well and charging them too?  It only makes sense...

But, maybe its better than the "Alabama math" my state government usually applies.  Normally they would go up on everyone $50, then offer a $25 discount to those they deem healthy enough to get it.  Now that's some sho-nuff real gov'munt thinkin' y'all...

I dont know ?! ?!
I pay over three hundred a month for my Insurance .
I work for DOD and we have to pay for our insurance , and pay dearly we do it sounds like !!! 

  But it does sound like they are singling some people out ? ( I dont know what to think )
I will agree that obesity is swiftly becoming a really big ( no pun ) problem and not just in the south .
 So what is the answer ??? I dont know . But we have to start somewere.


Good health and best wishes
Nick

I feel that we do it to ourselves in the first place so they have the right to punish the fat ones because being fat does have a lot of expenses behind it. It sucks but what are they gonna do, protest?  

Well, nothing makes you take action faster then something that makes an impact on your wallet. $300/year would make me to do something.  Every company/organization is looking to cut health care cost. This is most likely an attempt. It would also be nice to see an incentive to lose weight and get to certain BMI. The state and all would benefit by better health.  -- Tom from Ohio

It's a sign of the times.  Chesapeake Oil Co. in Oklahoma City has a huge campus and benefits galore.  One of the many benefits gives quarterly and semi annual bonuses if you participate in their wellness program.  If you order certain healthy items from their cafeteria through the computer system, it keeps tract of the healthy foods you order and gives you points.  Points are also given when you check into their own gym for a certain length of time.  The system somehow is able to make sure your just not clocking in and leaving.  My physcologist where I had my surgery was telling me his wife works there and got a $1500 bonus one time due to the wellness points she had.