Should fat people and smokers have to pay more for insurance?

Yes. Being overweight and smoking tobacco are rights we are allowed to choose and they should be, but when you essentially place a bet on living, can you really expect the house to lay you the same odds as everyone else?

Being overweight can be a contributing factor to health problems, however, being overweight does not mean someone is automatically sicker or less healthy than a thin person. Someone with a naturally high metabolic rate that allows them to eat junk food without gaining weight is equally if not more likely than someone that is overweight to suffer from high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and other diseases commonly associated with weight.

Smoking on the other hand is optional and does cause health problems.

Should those people pay more for health insurance than anyone else? No I don't think so. That would be like asking a house painter to pay for more becuase they developed lung cancer after working with painting chemicals for 40 years. The way it is we all share in the cost of everyone's healthcare. If we were to base it on someone's choices it would simply lead to more people that couldn't afford health care that run up high bills in hospitals that they in turn couldn't pay. More bad debt would equal healthcare providers further raising their prices and increasing the cost of insurance.

Only if people who drink alcohol and overuse drugs (legal and/or illegal -- and those who are bulemic do. Oh, and don't forget the hypochondriacs who simply love to visit doctors (they probably fit in the mentally ill category). You get my drift. And while we're at it, the mentally ill and wife/husband beaters should pay more, too.

**ultimately we need a statistician to answer this question b/c it all comes down to numbers and probability. If we all paid proportionate amounts, we'd be communist almost.

They do if they buy it on the open market, because both obesity and smoking are major risk factors for many diseases.

How about a discount for those who have a normal BMI and don't smoke?

I also think that smokers should pay a larger proportion for health care related to smoking - COPD, vascular disease, etc. Every taxpayer contributes a LOT to the upkeep of smokers once they hit age 65.

If people decide to be fat, lazy, and ignorant, and pollute the environment and give themselves cancer and take years off of the lives of everyone else around them who breathes in their smoke and knowingly(or not, but how could they not) increase their risks of heart problems and endanger their lives, they should expect to pay more for their health insurance because they should know that if they trash up their bodies, their bodies are going to need more maintenance, and in the U.S., health care sure isn't free! You know who should really pay for smoker's health care is the tobacco companies! Oh right, they really don't give a **** about anyone's lives..obviously..

Of course your hurting your health and in the long run your going to need more doctors visits because of it.

actually yes that makes sense