In a recent story, it was reported that some employers are going to begin implementing programs which will charge overweight employees a higher insurance premium. This move is hopefully an inventive for these people to lose weight and lead a healthier life thereby reducing health care costs in the long run. Other companies are going to use programs which give incentives to healthy people.

I doubt that this will have much effect, unless the penalties are VERY steep. One thing I learned in the book Freakonomics is that incentives or disincentives have to be very high in order to cause change in behavior. Without this, people will likely continue their behavior and pay the fine, because the cost of the fine is outweighed by their enjoyment of their current lifestyle.

Anyway, it's an interesting idea. We'll see how much people complain about the companies infringing upon their rights.