A person does not get charged a Higher premium for health insurance if they are smokers, yet they will flat out deny a person with type 2 diabetes if he/she was not previously insured, even if this type 2 diabetic is in general very healthy does not drink or smoke and is not overweight. How does this make sense?
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Actually the regulations governing health insurance (through ERISA - the employee retirement and income security act) forbid discrimination between enrollees except for documented health conditions (e.g. diabetes). Since smoking is highly correlated with many diseases but the causative factor is not identified it cannot be used as a discriminator. Many companies that self insure and are therefore exempt from ERISA do choose to provide nonsmokers rebates on their premiums. Unfortunately the Federal regulations do not permit these types of provisions in fully insured plans.
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