Smokers and  Americans with unhealthy lifestyles could soon be paying a lot more for their health care.Reuters reports a growing number of companies are raising health care costs for so-called unhealthy employees.  That means people who don’t quit smoking, lose weight or lower their cholesterol could find themselves in dire straits.

In the past few years, many employers have been trying to get workers to voluntarily improve their health to help bring down soaring insurance costs. They've introduced weight loss programs or classes to help people stop smoking.Wal-Mart, which insures more than 1 million people, says smokers consume about 25% more health care services than nonsmokers and starting next year, Wal-Mart will charge employees who smoke, higher premiums, along with offering a free program to help them quit.

Closer to home, here in Australia health budgets are under severe stress, it isn't fair that people who take avoidable risks are wasting resources without any personal financial consequences.

One issue that has arisen in the current debate about Medicare sustainability is whether personal responsibility should affect access to public-funded health services, challenging the settled vision of Medicare as a universal, no-fault scheme. Put simply, if you recklessly or fecklessly risk your health, or engage in risky but avoidable behaviours, is it reasonable that you should bear some responsibility for the consequences of your freely-made decisions?

Here's my question to you: Should smokers and  people who indulge in unhealthy lifestyles pay more for health care? Do you think that other taxpayers should foot the bill for others' undesirable lifestyles?

http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/31/should-smokers-and-fat-people-pay-more-for-health-care/

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-18/barnes-taking-responsibility-for-our-health-choices/5326254