Obesity can cause a variety of health problems, ranging from high blood pressure to cancer, as you are aware. Your health insurance company will believe that you are more prone to suffer long-term health problems if you are obese. You might be wondering how health insurance for obese people works. Is it possible that you’ll be compelled to pay higher rates or possibly be turned down? If that’s the case, what can you do about it? Find out everything you need to know about health insurance and obesity.
Why should obese people pay more for health insurance?
Obese people are more likely than non-obese people to develop chronic diseases, and they pay more for medical care as a result, according to the literature. Obese people had $10,000 more in lifetime medical costs than non-obese people for diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, hypertension, and stroke.
Do obese people spend more on healthcare?
Patients with a BMI of 30.0 to 34.9 and 35 or more saw a rise in total health care costs. When compared to those with a BMI of 20.0 to 24.9, mean yearly costs were 25% higher for those with a BMI of 30.0 to 34.5 and 44% higher for those with a BMI of 35 or above (P =. 003).
Does weight Affect insurance?
It certainly does. Your BMI will be used by insurance firms to set your life insurance quote. Your life insurance rates will be cheaper if your BMI is lower.
As a result, if you are overweight, you will almost certainly be offered a higher life insurance rate than if your BMI is lower.
Each insurance company has its own BMI table for calculating how your rate might rise if your BMI rises. The following is an example of a construction table from Manulife:
Do obese people pay more?
Excess weight has a number of negative effects on one’s health. It raises the risk of acquiring diseases including diabetes, heart disease, osteoarthritis, and some malignancies, to mention a few, and shortens life expectancy. The annual expense of treating obesity and obesity-related diseases is in the billions of dollars. According to one estimate, the United States spent $190 billion on obesity-related health-care costs in 2005, more than doubling prior figures. (1) The enormity of this economic burden, as well as the enormous toll that obesity has on health and well-being, is beginning to generate worldwide political awareness that individuals, communities, governments, nations, and international organizations must do more to combat obesity’s increasing tide.
Treatment of obesity and obesity-related disorders is connected with two categories of costs:
Outpatient and inpatient health services (including surgery), laboratory and radiographic examinations, and pharmacological therapy all have direct costs.
Indirect expenses, defined as “resources foregone as a result of a health condition,”(2) are divided into several categories:
- The worth of unfinished work. Employees (in lost salaries) and employers both pay a price for days missed from work (in work not completed). Obese employees miss more days from work than nonobese employees due to short-term absences, long-term disability, and early mortality. (3) They may also be working at a reduced capacity (also known as presenteeism).
- Insurance. Employers pay greater life insurance premiums and workers’ compensation payouts for fat employees than for non-obese employees. (4)
- Wages. Obesity is linked to reduced salaries and household income, according to certain studies. (5)
Who pays for the cost of obesity?
For Medicare and Medicaid recipients, the government pays a major percentage of the expenditures associated with obesity. The medical cost of adult obesity in the United States (US) is estimated to be between $147 billion to over $210 billion per year.
What is the unhealthiest state in America?
Mississippi has been the most unhealthy state in the country for several years. Mississippi has a low rate of drug overdoses and a low prevalence of binge drinking, but it lags behind in many other areas. Mississippi is the most physically inactive state in the US, with 32.0 percent of citizens reporting no regular exercise. The state also boasts the country’s highest obesity rate of 39.5 percent.
What are the costs associated with being overweight and obesity?
Obesity and its related health problems have a huge financial impact on the US health-care system, both directly and indirectly.11 12,13 Preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic services are all examples of direct medical costs. Indirect expenses include lost production and are related to illness and death. Employees missing work due to obesity-related health issues, decreased productivity at work, and early death and disability are all productivity indicators.14
National Estimated Costs of Obesity
In 2008 dollars, the cost of obesity-related medical care in the United States was estimated to be $147 billion. 15 The annual productivity costs of obesity-related absenteeism in the United States range from $3.38 billion ($79 per obese individual) to $6.38 billion ($132 per obese individual). 16
Obesity also has ramifications in terms of military recruitment.
Obesity disqualifies 31% of people between the ages of 17 and 24 in the United States from serving in the military if they wish to.
17
Should I lose weight before insurance?
“Excess weight does come into play and might raise your premiums, and excessive obesity could eventually preclude you from having any coverage at all,” says Edward E. Graves, an associate professor of insurance at The American College in Bryn Mawr, Pa.
Some businesses provide substantial financial incentives to employees who lose weight. The Weigh and Win program at Kaiser Permanente Colorado pays people up to $150 every three months if they lose weight and keep it off.
However, your life insurance company may provide the best incentive. If the money saved on life insurance premiums was set aside, it might be used to help pay for the coverage.
- Term life insurance costs $889 per year for a man who weighs 200 pounds, but reduces to $670 if he loses 20 to 40 pounds, saving $219 per year.
- A whole life insurance policy for the same man with the same amount of coverage would cost $5,761 at 200 pounds, $5,031 at 180 pounds, and $5,031 at 160 pounds, saving $730 over the course of his lifetime.
- The cost of a term policy for a woman weighing 180 pounds is $758 per year. If she loses 20 to 40 pounds, her monthly payment reduces to $569, saving her $189 per year.
- At 180 pounds, the same lady could buy a whole life policy for $4,686, but if she lost 20 to 40 pounds, her premium would decrease to $4,159, saving her $527.
There is, however, a distinction between a potential policyholder filing for a life insurance policy at a lower weight and an existing policyholder requesting a premium change after decreasing weight, according to Graves. According to him, many businesses will not entertain the latter request, just as they will not raise premiums if a policyholder acquires weight.
According to Graves, the ideal technique is to lose weight before applying for a life insurance policy. He claims that being 40 pounds overweight will likely result in higher prices, and that persons who are 70 pounds or more overweight will face increased rates from all insurers.
According to Tony Steuer, a licensed Individual life and disability insurance analyst in California, weight is one of a dozen factors insurers use to determine life insurance quotes, and underwriters of permanent or whole life policies have more leeway to give weight loss breaks for an extra 10 pounds.
According to Steuer, giving verification for slimmer persons seeking cheaper rates can be as simple as having an examiner bring a scale to their home or the insurance provider examining their medical records.
However, if your weight fluctuates every time you request for a policy change, or if a big weight loss through dieting is unsustainable, you may run into issues, he warns. If someone expects to lose weight, purchasing a five- or 10-year life insurance plan now and then updating to another plan once they reach their goal weight is a good idea, according to Steuer.
“The risk is that something else happens in terms of health, or they don’t lose the weight, and they don’t have the coverage they require,” he says.
According to Mark Bermudez, marketing supervisor at Life and Annuity Masters in Simi Valley, Calif., losing weight could result in a less expensive classification by the life insurance company, but getting older in the time it takes to lose it could make up the difference in savings you get from being thinner.
Why do insurance companies use BMI?
Many people lost their fitness as a result of the pandemic-induced lockdown, as they spent their days sitting at home. You might not realize it, but your health might have an impact on your life insurance premiums. The Body Mass Index is a metric used to assess an individual’s fitness and health. Let’s look at how to calculate your BMI and how it influences your insurance premiums.
Body Mass Index, or BMI, is a measurement that uses a person’s height to determine the appropriate weight for them. BMI, in most cases, properly predicts a person’s body fat percentage. As a result, a person with a high BMI has more body fat than someone with a low BMI, and vice versa.
You can use this chart to find the result after you’ve calculated your BMI. A BMI of between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered healthy.
Because the BMI is used to calculate an individual’s body fat, it is frequently utilized as a health risk indicator. As a result, if your BMI is high, you’re more likely to be afflicted by obesity-related illness. People with a high BMI are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, heart disease, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, and even die prematurely. Joint pain and osteoarthritis will develop as a result of low bone density caused by inconsistent eating and a greater fat content.
A low BMI, on the other hand, indicates that your body is not absorbing nutrients as efficiently as it should be. This could be a sign of an underlying condition, which could lead to anorexia in the long run.
Multiple factors in the human body affect overall health, therefore the assumption that BMI is the best indication of health and fat is hotly challenged. A healthy person with a family history of cardiac arrest, for example, may be considered a high-risk individual by insurance companies. Insurance companies would lose a lot of money if they just looked at the BMI as a health indicator.
Because BMI is a measure of an individual’s body’s health, it has an impact on the cost of life insurance. A higher BMI indicates a higher risk of heart disease and the likelihood of frequent hospital visits owing to weight-related disorders.
Similarly, someone with a BMI that is lower than the average is deemed unhealthy since they may be suffering from an underlying condition that is not readily diagnosed.
The insurance companies’ justification for utilizing the BMI to set the rate is straightforward. When a person’s BMI is in the extremes, he or she is more likely to visit the hospital frequently due to illness, which translates to increased medical costs for the insurance company. As a result, the higher the expected health-care costs, the higher the life insurance premiums will be.
Insurance companies do not solely rely on the BMI to determine a person’s health because other factors may be present. A person with a higher BMI may be in better health than someone who smokes on a daily basis. As a result, a variety of different criteria are taken into account. Other factors that influence the premium payment rate for life insurance policies include:
Age: Younger people are given better premium rates than older people because they are less likely to be a liability to the company. In this situation, the older person may request that their BMI levels be checked by the insurer, which could result in lower life insurance premium rates.