More Health Insurance Premiums
Printed From: MiddletownUSA.com
Category: Middletown Community
Forum Name: Middletown News, Info and Happenings
Forum Description: Discuss any Middletown Ohio area news story.
URL: http://www.middletownusa.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2410
Printed Date: Nov 26 2025 at 7:54am
Topic: More Health Insurance Premiums
Posted By: randy
Subject: More Health Insurance Premiums
Date Posted: Dec 08 2009 at 10:36am
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I have not decided just how i feel about this yet.
From the journal... MIDDLETOWN — Being a tobacco user won’t just cost your health — it will now also cost you money, if you’re a Premier Health Partners employee. The hospital group, which includes Atrium Medical Center in Middletown, will add an annual surcharge of more than $500 through health insurance premiums for employees who smoke or chew tobacco, or live in a household where others smoke. This will assessed in $20 increments each two-week pay period, according to Premier officials. The surcharge will be added to health-care premiums beginning in 2010. The company just concluded its open enrollment for benefits at the end of November and it is unclear how many of Atrium’s 1,838 employees will be affected, since not all workers elect for the insurance, said spokeswoman Sheri O’Flynn. Premier will rely on employees who use tobacco or are subject to second-hand smoke to “self-identify,” said Bill Linesch, Premier’s vice president of human resources. Employees who do not sign up for the health system’s tobacco-use policy but who are reported to use tobacco will be asked about their tobacco usage, but no formal reporting mechanism is being put in place, Linesch said. “We’re just asking people to be honest about it,” he said. The surcharge reflects Premier and Atrium’s “commitment to wellness and clamp down on health care expenses,” O’Flynn said. Atrium has a tobacco-free policy in place that does not allow the use of any tobacco products on its campus. Hospital officials said the policy applies to all staff, physicians, patients, visitors, vendors, volunteers, contractual workers as well as the general public. Smoking is also not allowed at Premier’s Miami Valley and Good Samaritan hospitals and Upper Valley medical centers. While O’Flynn could not release how much Atrium or Premier estimates tobacco use-related health care issues cost the company, statistics from a 2006 report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services indicated 60 percent of health-care costs in the U.S. go toward treatment for tobacco-related illnesses. ------------- Call me for a www.CameraSecurityNow.com" rel="nofollow - www.CameraSecurityNow.com quote 513-422-1907 x357 |
Replies:
Posted By: Hermes
Date Posted: Dec 08 2009 at 12:12pm
I hate insurance companies ! They are pathetic. Isn't that why we pay premiums in the first friggin place ? To have something to pay our bills when we get sick from smoking and chewing and drinking and doing drugs ? (not that I do any of those things) What do they want ? To sit back and collect premiums on HEALTHY people so they can make money out the waz-zoo and never,ever pay a claim ??!! It seems the mentality of politicians & insurance companies is if we are not healthy and fit THEY will make us healthy & fit and WE will continue to pay the premiums for something WE may never use or can't use because THEY don't cover it !! What kind of scam are they running here ?  ------------- No more democrats no more republicans,vote Constitution Party !! |
Posted By: VietVet
Date Posted: Dec 08 2009 at 1:24pm
How about- Atrium will give their employees a choice. You can stop smoking and pay a lower share of your health care premium per month, deducted from your paycheck--- OR- you can continue to smoke and you will absorb the difference of a non-smoker's health care rate versus the average insurance charge of a smokers monthly premium from your paycheck. IE- you will pay the higher premium rate for smokers as Atrium will no longer absorb the additional insurance costs for smokers and will only pay the non-smoker rate. Why does it always have to be all or nothing with employers? 
Hermes- car insurance companies are a classic example. You pay your car insurance premiums for years with no claims and you are a valued customer UNTIL you file a claim. Then, overnight, they cancel you, or, at best, raise your premiums so high you can no longer afford them and are forced to find another carrier. They exist only to make money with little to no expeditures. On the other hand, I can attest to the monetary payouts by Anthem for my wife's medical expenses. They have paid 100% of her costs which are approaching $150,000. They have been tremendous and have provided protection from overwhelming financial charges. |
Posted By: Vivian Moon
Date Posted: Dec 08 2009 at 2:48pm
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Today it is the smoking tax that is paying for everything...however you can bet that the FAT TAX is on it's way. |
Posted By: Hermes
Date Posted: Dec 08 2009 at 4:35pm
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You want to hear a good one about the insurance business....my wife was told by her employer provided insurance company that it would cost her an additional $100 per month if I refused or declined insurance from my employer. Now this is not to add me to my wifes plan it is simply because I wouldn't have insurance. Explain that one  ------------- No more democrats no more republicans,vote Constitution Party !! |
Posted By: randy
Date Posted: Dec 08 2009 at 7:43pm
well of cousre that makes a lot of sense.  ------------- Call me for a www.CameraSecurityNow.com" rel="nofollow - www.CameraSecurityNow.com quote 513-422-1907 x357 |
Posted By: Mike_Presta
Date Posted: Dec 08 2009 at 9:03pm
------------- “Mulligan said he ... doesn’t believe they necessarily make the return on investment necessary to keep funding them.” …The Middletown Journal, January 30, 2012 |
randy wrote:Posted By: lrisner
Date Posted: Dec 08 2009 at 9:58pm
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While that does seem reasonable, it is the slippery slope I worry about. Pretty soon you will be charged if you don't go to the Gym. How about riding a Motorcycle? If you are Macho and don't wear a Helmet, you get a double penalty. It could get out of hand really fast! |
Posted By: VietVet
Date Posted: Dec 09 2009 at 6:26am
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Hermes- Your wife's insurance company is trying to protect itself from being the primary insurance for both of you and having to pay the premiums. They want your employer to pay the premiums for your insurance and don't want to pay the premiums for both of you if you have the option of acquiring coverage where you work. They want to be the primary insurer for your wife and the secondary coverage for you with your primary insurer at your work paying your medical bills. You can't ride on your wife's insurance if you are offered coverage at your place of employment or you'll be penalized- ($100 bucks per month) They gotta make some money off of this if you opt out of your employer offered coverage. If your out of pocket will be less than $100 per month, it's cheaper to get your own insurance, right?
We have a little different situation. My wife has Social Security Disability and has Medicare- Parts A and B. I have Anthem Advantage where I work and am paying an extra $75 bucks per paycheck for the best coverage they offer. (Got to due to her medical issues). ALL of the medical bills are paid by Anthem. Little to nothing is paid by her insurance- Medicare. Reason- she is 58. If she were 65, Medicare would be the primary insurer and pay what Anthem is paying now. We never get a Medicare EOB- the EOB's always come from Anthem. When she turns 65, Anthem will stop being her primary coverage. |
Posted By: Pacman
Date Posted: Dec 09 2009 at 6:43am
They are just trying to force you onto your employers plan rather than be on your wife's, which costs your wife's employer more money.
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