Monday, July 27, 2009

Barebacking tax: Should people who don’t use condoms pay higher healthcare premiums?


via The Daily Loaf, by Shawn Alff

Congressman Steve Buyer (R-Ind) knows how to fund healthcare reform: charge those who engage in sex without condoms higher insurance premiums. Before we dismiss Buyer as another nut who is just trying to slow down healthcare reform, let’s consider the consequences of this proposition.

The first question is how insurance companies would regulate risky sex acts. Would there be a barebacking police who raids your room after a one-night-stand, searching for a used condom? More than likely barebacking would become incorporated into the health-history/pre-existing-conditions questionnaire that establishes the appropriate insurance premium for your lifestyle. Like me, you’ve undoubtedly been less than sure about how to answer a few of these questions, like “Do you use tobacco?” and “How heavy of a drinker are you?” I puff on a cigar about twice a year, often times vomiting afterward, but does this put me in the same ranks as chain smokers? I don’t think drinking three Busch Lights a night qualifies me as a heavy drinker, because to me Busch Light is basically water, but I doubt my insurance provider would agree. Many of us feel a sense of accomplishment when we get away with lying to our providers until we develop a health problem related to our risky behavior and our insurance refuses coverage.

Read the rest.


2 comments:

  1. Yes, but this is just another way to stigmatize gay men in general and HIV+ gay men even more so.

    Do you think the same standards would be held for straight people? No, because it would be assumed that they were trying to procreate which is just as risky.

    If gay men could have butt babies...it wouldn't matter. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. why don't we "change the subject" and just say congressmen and senators are not allowed to have any healthcare that is in any way better than the "LEAST" form of healthcare of the americans they represent.

    Since wWALL street helped develop the HMO model, Why don't we force them to seed a single-payer system with the estimated 29 trillion dollars in taxpayer money they have accepted.

    Let's dispense with these stupid arguments and take care of all Americans, because as Republicans are fond of saying: "It's YOUR tax money; shouldn't you have a say in how it's spent."

    ReplyDelete

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