[cwb]

There is an interesting dicotomy here when we speak about healthcare. Many employers (especially goernment) have taken it upon themselves to order their employees to stop smoking. We have no-smoking bans and instances were local governments have even threatened to fire smokers...even when they do it in the privacy of their own home. Their reasoning behind this is healthcare and the rising costs of premiums. In other words, we have people who are discriminated against, under the guise of healthcare, for a lifetyle choice. If we were to take this to the next logical step, wouldn't it be just as valid for employees to discriminate against homosexuals based on this same concern? Doesn't this lifestyle cost healthcare providers and insurers just as much money in premiums and care? How about obesity and overweight employees? Isn't this, many times, a lifstyle choice that costs as much in medical care as smokers? If we can discriminate against smokers based on heathcare, why not other lifestyle choices that cost as much in medical care as they do?

[goodnesswins]

"If we can discriminate against smokers based on heathcare, why not other lifestyle choices that cost as much in medical care as they do?

You are TOO logical for life in the USA....you missed the SOCIALIST Indoctrination class? Welcome to the REAL world.

[expatpat]

Someone should suggest homosexuals should be taxed, to pay for the increased cost of health-care due to dangerous life-style choices. (The guy who went over Niagara Falls the other day is being clobbered for this, isn't he?)

[JoeFromSidney]

If we were to take this to the next logical step, wouldn't it be just as valid for employees to discriminate against homosexuals based on this same concern? Doesn't this lifestyle cost healthcare providers and insurers just as much money in premiums and care? How about obesity and overweight employees? Isn't this, many times, a lifstyle choice that costs as much in medical care as smokers? If we can discriminate against smokers based on heathcare, why not other lifestyle choices that cost as much in medical care as they do?

The assumption here is that the only way to get health insurance is through your employer. I don't get my fire insurance, my life insurance, or my car insurance through my employer. The only reason I have to get health insurance through my employer is our crazy tax laws. Let us buy our own health insurance, with the cost tax deductible as it is for employers (fully deductible, no 7 1/2% of AGI threshold), and the insurance companies can charge according to risk factors of the insured, just as companies selling other kinds of insurance do.

[biblewonk]

Good point!

[randog]

Good point. Drug and alcohol testing is standard in the workplace now. Companies also look into prospective employee's financial records to see if they've got problems there, too.