Incentivize Smoking Cessation & Weight Loss

To encourage smoking cessation, insurance plans can offer a deduction for non-smokers to reduce the cost of insurance policies. This sends a clear message of personal responsibility and rewards healthy living.

In a similar fashion, insurance plans can offer a deduction for adults either within a given percentage of their ideal body weight or actively involved in a exercise / dietary weight loss program. Giving reduced health insurance rates for people making an effort to maintain their ideal body weight encourages personal responsibility and rewards health living.

Dietary and fitness programs with personal trainers and coaches are becoming more and more common. Allowing patients to use money from their Health Savings Accounts to participate in these programs would further incentivize patient involvement. This would also allow overweight patients a way to document involvement in such a program to receive their deductions on health insurance rates. As more and more companies compete for these health maintenance dollars these programs will become more refined and effective.