Should it be illegal to fire an employee whose illness causes insurance costs to rise for other employees?

Question

Are there limitations that should be placed upon the uses of information gathered through genetic screening? What might such limitations involve?

sorry i have played around with the ratings by accident

Answer 1

it depends on the illness. can you give mor detail please

Answer 2

Suppose it were.

Then, employers who could not fire, or terminate benefits, would be forced to:

Increase their contribution.
Increase their employee contribution.
Change health plans.

Either of the first two, if taken to extreme, would result in the terminition of benefits for employee and employer. The continued increasing cost would become unbearable: the company would either have to stop providing insurance, or go out of business.

The final choice only delays the first two.

If it were not illegal:

Fired people would eventually die - it is unlikely a non-life threatning illness would significantly raise insurance costs.

There would be less people to hire, and certainly no one would work for an employer who fired people for getting sick.

Stretched to the extreme, business would go out of business again.

The problem is in running health care as a business. Capitalism is the best economic model to work so far, but its motivation is numbers, and can only ever be numbers. When we find an economic system based on human beings, we will fix this health care problem.

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Our people are not yet ready to grapple with these genetic questions. Of course disease should be cured, but should mediocraty. Should the need for glasses be removed and replaced with a 12th grade reading level by grade 3?

Once we have control of morals, and our culture can tolerate what should be tolerated, prevent misfortune, & stop threats, we may be in a better position.

Answer 3

for employers that have a relatively few employees, < 100 or so, these costs could mount so incredibly high, that the employer is forced to cancel all insurance.

So I ask you, should it be legal for one person's illness to eliminate the health insurance for 100 employees and their families?

Why do the needs of the overwhelming majority take a back seat to one individual?

this is just another reason why we need a universal healthcare plan for the country, so that employers are not forced into these very very difficult decisions.

Answer 4

Of course it should be and is illegal. Why should someone become unemployable because they have an illness? If they are willing and able to do the job, then they should be allowed to do it. Yes, people who actually have illnesses do drive the cost of insurance up, but wouldn't you want to be able to work and have affordable health insurance if you contracted a disease?

Genetic screening has no place in a work environment. Genetic screening should only be used to prevent and cure illnesses and disabilities. The information should only be used in a research or treatment environment and only if the participant is willing.

Answer 5

It should be illegal because you can't help if you have an illness that's expensive to treat. On the other hand, if it's caused by drug addiction etc. that's your own personal fault.

Answer 6

i didnt even know that could happen, so i read through the answers to get an idea, cant believe what im hearing, of course it should be illegal, some people cant help being ill often, and also why should the other employees suffer, they should all be treated fairly

Answer 7

I do not know if is legal or not but they do it all the time It is sopposed to be illegal but the gov is the biggest voilator. To win a case you need media attiontion and a good lawyer.

Answer 8

It should be illegal. Some people can't help how often they are sick or how sick they get. Besides, if you fire someone who is ill all the time where are they supposed to get insurance again? That would be just downright sh#tty!!!

Answer 9

Yes and it should be illegal for insurance companies to raise their costs just because they have to pay out once in a while.

Answer 10

well if you give me the illness can email you back but most of the times yes