re: #24 b.d. (Cough Louder Conservatives!)

Cool. So for most of the US the rise of premiums will effect employers and not the individuals? It is easy to lie about an employee being a smoker or not but I would imagine that the insurance companies might want to require proof of vaccination? Smoking cigarettes typically can’t get you fired or make you pay more on an employer based plan, can being unvaccinated?

I don’t want to pay extra for my insurance because of these morons.

Those of us on Medicare don’t pay based on health status at all. Most of us have some condition — due to genes or pre-natal environment or diet or behavior or exposure to environmental toxins — that affects our health and longevity. This will be just one of many factors underlying health care costs. So far, this disease has reduced life expectancy here by 1.5 years; the 1918 flu had a 12 year impact on American life expectancy.