Quote:
Originally Posted by clintjm
MMM, I'm sorry, there is a MMM posting under your handle. He wrote:
Which is pretty much the opposite of:
MMM, private insurance companies understand this and have healthness awareness programs and other benefits. If not, they just won't sell them a policy. If the insurance company is forced to let them in because of an employer then the rates for that company should be affected and it should then be the companies responsibility to get their employees in order. Thus in the end it falls back on the responsibility of the individual.
If they already have a policy and one decides to blow themselves up to a certain weight disclosed in the policy (not due to a hormone inbalance), then you risk high premiums, rehab or termination. Kind of like you burning down your restaurant or crashing your car to collect on the insurance. But I'm talking about really destroying your body... like hitting the morbid BMIs.
An exception to this in most cases:If you are in a position of power in public that requires your physical health... i.e. mass transit driver, pilot, etc etc that should be taken care of by that company.
You slipped in Gasoline in there for some reason... Really?
Why stop there? Why not tax TV (rots your brain), games (addictive and can consume your life... could leave your baby in the car and forget about it), internet (too much free speech there and someone of weak mind could get the wrong idea and commit bodily injury), porn (yeah its bad), tanning salons, chocolate, tea, dare I say it... coffee... (tea and coffee for the caffine).
Too much of anything is bad for you in the long run...
Why not just make them illegal... Lets not just make anything bad for you illegal or tax it to death.
Why stop with obesity ... go for too thin too. Or not strong enough, too frail... How about sports deemed to be risky physically. All can be addictive and damaging.
Stop with the taxing already... the last thing we need is letting government tax something else..
I'm don't want to pay an extra 25 cents for a cup of co-co because someone likes co-co too much.
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It's not the opposite. One is a statement and one is a question (which I don't think you answered). How are they opposite?
If TV, pornography, video games, Internet, tea or any of the other things you talked about were proven direct contributing factors to America's increasing obesity and unhealthiness, and was contributing to increased health costs for all Americans, then I would say yes, let's tax them to to balance the problem.
Your argument about insurance would work if everyone was insured. The fact is the worst offenders don't even have insurance, and don't pay a dime for the 10s and 100s of thousands of dollars spent on them in health care individually every year. They use the emergency room, and don't pay the bills. So then the hospital jacks up the prices so a trip to the ER starts at $300 for walking in the door. (Add another $750 if you took an ambulance there.) The insurance companies are now paying for the people that don't pay bills, so what do they do? Increase insurance rates every year. What is the result? Fewer people can afford health insurance. People drop out of programs, so what happens? Rates go up. 20% a year in some programs. Every year. Much higher than inflation, and much higher than raises or cost of living.
How long do we want this downward spiral to continue?