Of course the question is, how will someone know if you smoke. If you light up in the privacy of your own home - how are they going to know? Are those smart meters going to tell them - I don't doubt that, I'm afraid!
And you don't think fat people will have to start paying higher premiums?
What about women who get pregnant. They should have to pay higher premiums also, because if you're having a baby there's always a chance something could go wrong.
Anyone whose family has a hereditary disease should have to pay higher premiums also,,, if a woman whose family has a history of cancer goes ahead and has a baby...that baby could get cancer too! So charge 'em more!
RUSH:For those of you who smoke, I told you yesterday that in Oregon they're gonna try to make cigarettes available only by way of prescription. The AP via Yahoo News is reporting today via Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar: "Millions of smokers could be priced out of health insurance because of tobacco penalties in President Barack Obama's health care law, according to experts who are just now [fleshing] out the potential impact of a little-noted provision in the massive legislation. The Affordable Care Act -- 'Obamacare' ... -- allows health insurers to charge smokers buying individual policies up to 50% higher premiums starting next Jan. 1."
See, this thing doesn't start fully implementing 'til 2014. And one of these things is next January, a year from now, smokers who buy individual policies will automatically face a premium increase of 50% above what already is being charged. For a 55-year-old smoker, that penalty could reach nearly $4,250 a year. A 60-year-old smoker could wind up paying nearing $5,100 on top of the premium. The $4,250 is on top of his premium. That's the penalty for smoking. And don't forget, the sales tax revenue from tobacco sales is funding children's health care programs. Little known provision. Oh, there are so many of these.
This story about the penalty on smokers that kicks in one year from now, Obamacare, I mentioned that -- and the story says it's an AP story -- a 55-year-old person that smokes, the penalty will be $4,250 a year. That penalty, so there's no misunderstanding, is added to your already existing health insurance premium, whatever that is. The penalty is $4,250 if you smoke. There's a smokers penalty, 4,200 bucks for a person of 55. They average out what the premium would be, calculate the penalty. The older you are, the higher your premium is gonna be, therefore the higher your penalty. So a 60-year-old will end up paying $5,100 on top of their premium.
Now, I know, a lot of you are saying, "Well, so what? I don't smoke. To hell with smokers."
Smokers are among the most hated people in our country, even though I think they deserve a medal. I think smokers deserve national gratitude. The sales tax revenue from cigarette sales is funding child health care. Cigarette smokers are abused. They are shunned. They are discriminated against. They are true, second-, third-class citizens. There has been a genuine hatred ginned up against smokers.
It's not enough that you might disagree with what they do. If you see somebody smoking, other than in a movie, if you've seen a movie, it looks kind of cool. If you see it on a TV show, hey, looks kind of cool. But if you see somebody light up near a restaurant you're going into, you just hate 'em. You get mad because this has been the objective. And yet these people continue to put up with the abuse. If they're told they can only smoke in subfreezing weather outdoors in the wintertime, they do it. It is they who are primarily funding a couple of children's health care programs.
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