Jump to full article: CNSNews, 2009-10-28
Author: Karen Schuberg
Intro: Under the Senate Finance Committee version of the health-care bill, health insurance companies would be allowed to charge tobacco users premiums up to 50 percent higher than those of non-users, while marijuana and crack cocaine smokers could not be penalized with higher premiums.
According to provisions spelled out in the Senate Finance Committee's summary of the bill--the so-called "chairman's mark"--insurance issuers selling policies to individuals could only vary premiums based on three characteristics: tobacco use, age and family composition.
Specifically, it says premiums could vary "by no more than the ratio specified" for each characteristic:
. . .
Allen St. Pierre, director of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws agreed that the Senate Finance Committee was being "rather selective" in singling out tobacco users over users of cocaine and marijuana. But St. Pierre said the government is attempting to further a social trend.
"It certainly doesn't get away too far from an existing 20-year trend of government taxing tobacco at every-increasing rates and users of tobacco, so by extension, taxing the health plans or making them less available to people who use tobacco would be consistent with that 20-year trend," he added.
Tobacco has become "politically incorrect," St. Pierre said.
When asked by CNSNew.com why he thought tobacco was specifically targeted by senators but marijuana wasn't, St. Pierre cited tobacco's "killing capacity."
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