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Health Insurance for Overweight Americans
Health Insurance for Overweight Americans
By Tony Novak, MBA, MT, www.tonynovak.com, OnlineAdviserTM at MedSave.com One in 50 adult Americans is clinically obese, according to a new Rand study. A clinically obese person is one who is more than 100 pounds overweight. These large people require extraordinary medical care that few medical facilities are equipped to handle. Most medical offices do not have scales to weigh patients over 300 pounds despite the fact that accurate weight is crucial to prescribing many types of medicines. These patients may not fit on normal hospital beds, imaging equipment, wheelchairs or operating tables. Severely overweight people are far more likely to suffer from diabetes, arthritis and other medical conditions. The nation is slowly changing its attitude toward obesity as a medical condition. The IRS now allows the cost of weight loss programs to be deducted by taxpayers as a normal medical expense. Employee benefit plans may now classify weight control costs as a tax-free benefit under a health plan. The state of new Louisiana launched a study to examine the financial effects of gastric by-pass surgery on the overall health care costs of obese patients. If the results of this study are favorable, we might expect to see gastric bypass treatment routinely covered procedure under health insurance plans that are defined to cover "ordinary and necessary medical expenses". For years health insurance companies have charged extra premiums to overweight members. In those cases where severe obesity is accompanied by full or partial disability, unemployment or underemployment, the high cost of these health insurance plans is unaffordable. Some health plans are simply not available to applicants who weigh more than allowed by the underwriters. In small business health insurance plans, insurance is always available to every full-time employee regardless of weight or medical history. The extra cost of caring for overweight members is spread evenly among all of the employees of the business. Adding an obese employee can boost the premium cost by 5% to 25% for everyone in the group and may cause resentment among the lighter weight employees. Even in larger groups and Blue Cross plans that use a "one price for all" the high cost of treating obesity has become a politically charged issues. There are still a few low cost health insurance plans available without regard to the applicant's weight. In most states the American Health Shield (www.MedSave.com) and Fortis Short Term Medical plans (www.fortisenrollment.com) can be issued at standard rates without regard to weight. Both of these plans are unavailable to individuals with diabetes . One limitation of these plans is that they require re-enrollment every six months but both of these health insurers will introduce longer term plans in the near future. Reprinted with Permission from The State Street Journal |
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