An Arizona tax charging Medicaid patients $50 a year if they smoke, have diabetes or are overweight is being considered.
The fee is intended to reduce health care costs by encouraging patients to adopt a healthy lifestyle according to a spokeswoman for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.
"It engages the consumer to start having a greater awareness of how they fit into the bigger health care puzzle," said Monica Coury, spokeswoman for AHCCCS. "We want to be able to provide health care to people. And we want to stretch our dollars as far as we can. Part of that is engaging people to take better care of themselves."
Some private employers and state governments have already introduced higher insurance premiums for workers who are overweight or smoke, but Arizonas new plan would be the first state-federal health care program to charge low-income residents for unhealthy lifestyles.
The fee would apply to certain childless adults and to diabetic patients who failed to follow doctors orders to lose weight.
Democratic state Sen. Kyrsten Sinema said the tax proposal isn't fair to diabetics.
"This would fine people with medical conditions beyond their own power and control," Sinema said. "I just don't think it's fair to vilify someone with diabetes."
