Poll: Live Unhealthy, Pay the Price
More than half of respondents to a Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive poll say that people who smoke or choose not to wear seat belts should pay a higher health insurance premium, but most did not feel the same way about people who were overweight or didn't exercise enough. Only 27% of the poll's 2,200 respondents thought that overweight people should pay more for insurance than slimmer people; the same percentage favored having people who did not exercise regularly pay more. The amount of education the respondent had affected the responses given: Those with some college education were more likely to agree that those with unhealthy lifestyles should pay higher premiums, compared with respondents with a high school education or less. The poll had a 3.3% margin of error.