After two scrubbed launches, State Employees Association of North Carolina Executive Director Dana Cope appeared on NBC's Today Show to criticize a new policy that puts state employees who are obese or smokers in a more expensive health plan.
Cope was featured in a story postponed from Thursday's and, then, Friday's shows that highlighted the changes in the state employees health plan that take effect in the next two years. North Carolina is only the second state to impose the financial penalty on the obese.
State health plan officials are aiming to both improve workers' health and bring down medical costs. Smoking and obesity are both linked to a variety of maladies that are expensive to treat. On the show, Cope emphasized his organization's criticism that the health plan is pushing penalties for bad lifestyles instead of rewards for good health.
"It’s all stick and no carrots," Cope said. "There’s a proper way to do that and it’s not all based on punishment. It should be incentives built in."
Here's a link to the whole story.
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Re: Cope finally gets his 'Today'
Thank you, Dana, for standing up for fat people. The Defense of a Greasy Cheeseburger Act is important. How many fatty cheeseburgers you eat in the privacy of your own kitchen is no one's business.
I hope the Defense of Fat People will go forward from here. Did you know that some stores charge more money for the larger sizes like the 2XL and 3XL and 4XL. That is ridiculous. Just because it takes three or four times the material to make the clothes is no reason to charge more. Skinny people already have all the advantages. Make them pay for us fat people! This is America and the skinny people need to accept us fat people as equals.
Us fat people cannot hide behind the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Heck, we can't even get in the closet! Fat people should be able to be a burden on the health care system at the expense of the healthy people. That's in the Bible!
Praise the Lord.