Just how risky is obesity for long-term health?
Charging More for Health Coverage:
The Affordable Care Act permits employers to charge their unhealthy employees more for health care coverage. But the measures used to determine who has an unhealthy lifestyle include BMI, or body-mass index, as the standard measure of weight for height.
The BMI is used to determine who is considered obese, but it does not actually distinguish those who are out of shape or headed for diabetes from those who are physically fit and metabolically healthy.
Will a High BMI That Qualifies as Obese Tell Who Is Unhealthy?
According to psychologists at UCLA, using a BMI of 30 as the criterion for obesity could misclassify 54 million Americans as unhealthy. What is more, 20.7 percent of those found to have a BMI in the normal range actually had disturbed metabolic markers. As a result, the researchers say, BMI alone should not be used to determine who should pay more for health insurance.
