The Southern Highland Reader

STATEWIDE–As I touched on here and here, North Carolina’s state health plan will soon be closely tied to the behavior of the people enrolled in the plan. The state will penalize those who are overweight, who smoke, and so forth, and will be among the first few states in the nation to do so.

Some in the media argue that tying behavior to health insurance costs is sensible, although Adam Linker at NC Policy Watch isn’t so sure.

He argues, among other things, that the use of any type of tobacco product will be treated the same as the use of cigarettes, despite varying health risks (he uses cigars as an example). Linker also points out what he sees as a fundamental unfairness of the plan: that low-wage state workers — who are statistically more likely to be in poor health than higher paid workers — are “punished” more severely, because the programs costs aren’t on a sliding scale.

“Imposing a penalty for smoking is one thing. Crippling family budgets for using tobacco is quite another,” Linker writes.

He also points out that the expense of the state plan for lower-paid workers is quite high.

Read more here at the NC Policy Watch blog.

Another story from the Asheville Citizen-Times here.

Tags: Health, health insurance, NC Policy Watch, North Carolina, smoking, state health plan

Related posts:

1. Here’s what new state health care plan would cost state employees
2. Sticking it to state employees? Senate makes health plan changes
3. State Employees Association airs ad against NC health care fix
4. NC to penalize overweight state employees
5. State employee? Get ready for mouth swabs.

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