I live in Bonner County in Idaho… and recently one of the Commissioners has come up with the idea that the rules should have anyone who applies for a county job, will not be hired if they smoke.
This isn’t so much against smokers up front, so he says, it is about health and saving on health insurance.
What a can of worms that will open. You see they aren’t saying you can’t smoke
at work. They are telling you, if you want a job for the county, you can not smoke at all. Never… ever.. While some people probably think that is a good think. It would be a healthy thing, for sure. BUT…BUT.. what will be the next thing that this commissioner want to for the change of rules for the sake of cheaper health insurance?
The one that comes to mind for most people will be weight. Will you have to weigh with in 5 pounds of the national average for your height? And if you are over those 5 pounds, you will not be hired? What about 5 pounds under. As the national health reports have reported both sides of the coin that had their share of health problems. Which is costly for health insurance.
Will it be you will have to prove that no one in your family has ever had a heart attack? No one in your family has ever had cancer? Will you have to take a test to see if in fact you might have the genes that could be Alzheimer’s later in your life? Will you be turn down for a job in the county for any of these test?
Who will be left to hire?
I wonder what health issues are hidden in this commissioners genes. I don’t know if he is retired or owns his own business or works for another… but I wonder how he would like it if he was to be subject to each any every one of these health issues which could become a health liability for the health insurance that the county carries.
What a slippery slope this will be come, if it does become an issue. So far there are two of the other commissioners who aren’t supporting this issue.. hopefully they will understand the can of worms they will open, say nothing of the lawsuits.
By the way, how do they hire someone who does not smoke, who gave up smoking because he wanted the job that bad, and his supervisor is a smoker? And gets to keep his job as he is grandfathered in. Will there be drug test and nicotine test?
Yep, a slippery slope indeed.
Saturday Slight
6 hours ago
3 comments:
And then, there's the question of age. Because the older a person gets, the more likely he/she is to use the health insurance, more often and for more serious conditions. Will the answer be not to hire anyone over, say, fifty? A slippery slope, indeed.
I was pretty shocked when I read this - the prosecutor also says that the county can do this because smokers are not a protected class of people.
If this guy gets reelected - just hope that the other two commissioners can keep his restrictive policies at bay until you can vote him out.
I guess some "private" companies are getting away with this policy, however, this is government and it raises state issues that I don't think will float like cigarettes are legal and the state gets money from the proceeds. Is the county of Bonner going to refuse the handout that trickles down into their coffers?
I wonder how your senators Broadsword and Keough feel about this ridiculous breech of privacy.
breech = breach
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