W.Va. may join N.C. in charging overweight public employees higher health-insurance premiums

Last week North Carolina's health insurance program for public employees announced it would begin charging higher premiums for overweight workers next year. The idea is catching on in West Virginia, a state where obesity is even more prevalent, after Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin asked the state Public Employees Insurance Agency director, "Why aren't we doing something like that?" On Thursday the West Virginia PEIA board voted to put a similar option out for public comment over the next month, Phil Kabler of The Charleston Gazette reports.

PEIA director Ted Cheatham says the proposal raises a fundamental issue about people at higher risks of health complications due to lifestyle choices paying more for health insurance. National figures show an obese woman will have lifetime health care costs that are an average of $26,000 higher than a woman of normal weight, Kabler reports. PEIA currently offers a number of voluntary wellness programs, including weight loss ones, but Cheatham says higher premiums offer more incentive. PEIA currently charges smokers $25 more a month than non-smokers. (Read more)