Senate health bill penalizes cigarette smokers, but smack and crack are okay
ByI guess junkies are another favorite constituency of the Democrats. Cigarette smokers may want to put down the butts and pick up a joint, or a pipe. Even a needle would be better, at least if you’re to judge such things by the Senate health care bill.
I don’t disagree that smokers should be charged a higher premium than non-smokers. But so should people who engage in any other unhealthy habit or lifestyle. Why should someone who eats a healthy diet, goes to bed early every night and goes to the gym three times a week pay the same premium as a pot smoking, coke snorting, obese and sedentary alcoholic? Oh I know, if we’re all stoned we won’t notice what they’re doing to us.
CNS News reports:
Under the Senate Finance Committee version of the health-care bill, health insurance companies would be allowed to charge tobacco users premiums up to 50 percent higher than those of non-users, while marijuana and crack cocaine smokers could not be penalized with higher premiums.
According to provisions spelled out in the Senate Finance Committee’s summary of the bill–the so-called “chairman’s mark”–insurance issuers selling policies to individuals could only vary premiums based on three characteristics: tobacco use, age and family composition.
Just for fun, here’s video of Patrick Kennedy, who acts like he smoked a little something before this appearance. He thinks health care reform should take the bureaucracy out of the insurance industry. Let’s replace it with the federal government! No bureaucracy there.
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