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You've done a good job of highlighting why the health care system shouldn't be public in the first place. I always hate when government involvement is used as a justification for more government involvement. Remember that many, if not most, of the problems with our current health care system can be traced to wage controls during WWII. Without those, employers probably wouldn't be in the middle of health insurance and it would be portable for individuals. I agree the current system needs reform but I believe we are going the wrong direction in getting the government more intensely involved. We would be much better off by tweaking some regulations to ensure choice, competition and portability for the insured.
Group health insurance rates do vary based on the health of the group but to the best of my knowledge they only vary up or down 10% from the standard rate. But you are correct that the individual rates don't vary, even within a group, except for age and sex.
I admit I have a negative reaction to the word tax. Government is so wasteful and inefficient. Programs rarely work as planned and the "solution" is typically more money and regulations.
But still, there is no Constitutional authority for a federal tax on fats, just as there is no Constitutional authority for a $.10 tax on bottles or for mandating that everyone have health insurance. (Both of these ideas have been suggested by Congressmen in the last few weeks.) But that politicians are not going to let something like the Constitution get in the way of their "good ideas!"
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Or the pretense of good intentions.
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Originally Posted by 70Ford
And they came for the fatties, and I said nothing. No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land."
I think we should tax people who don't exercise. Exercise is good for you. No one ever got hurt exercising. Have national gyms that you have to attend regularly. Have a card you have to have read by a card scanner. If you don't exercise and can't prove it, you get the "blob of slob" tax.
Indeed. The smokers, the fatties. Now it's doctors who do tonsillectomies to pay for the Lexus, evill insurance companies, evill this, evill that, evill everything but punk chicago politicians who know nothing about anything but holding forth on grand matters of which they know absolutely nothing.
I heard the Powers That Be are planning on outsourcing the insurance decision-making to China, aka Red China. Balance of payments, dodging blame, you name it, there's a plan for it.
Location: Georgia, on the Florida line, right above Tallahassee
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A tax on certain types of food affects all who buy it, not just fat people.
It seems you are wanting to not have to pay extra money in insurance costs due to someone's eles's failings by suggesting that we all pay a higher price on certain types of foods, due to someone else's failings.
You've done a good job of highlighting why the health care system shouldn't be public in the first place.
No, just indicating you have to use tax policy when something is supplied by the government. I do not believe there is any way to get the government out of health care, free market principles simply do not work well with certain aspects of health care.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Niners fan
I admit I have a negative reaction to the word tax. Government is so wasteful and inefficient.
I consider "government is so wasteful and inefficient" as dogma, at times government programs can be such, but they are not always that way. When free markets are not able to correctly handle a service, then government programs tend to be the better alternative. A number of studies argue that medicare is more efficient than private insurers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Niners fan
But that politicians are not going to let something like the Constitution get in the way of their "good ideas!"
The constitution is not a static document. The founders rightly made it amendable.
It seems you are wanting to not have to pay extra money in insurance costs due to someone's eles's failings by suggesting that we all pay a higher price on certain types of foods, due to someone else's failings.
"we all pay a higher price on certain types of foods"....those that are physically fit eat less unhealthy foods and therefore will pay less towards others bad choices. It will not completely eliminate the fact that I'm paying towards others failings, rather it will reduce the amount I have to pay.
But this is why health care does not work in this country, everyone wants a free lunch. Using tax policy is just a way of creating the right sort of incentives. I see no possibility of getting rid of medicare, as a result there will always be a large number of people with government supplied health insurance.
If you feed an active young person with a high metabolism a high-fat diet, they'll soak it up without a cent of additional cost to the taxpayer. However, if you feed an old fat guy the same diet, he'll cost the taxpayer more money. That fact alone is enough to realize that a fat tax unfairly redistributes wealth from the young to the old. While you're at it, are you going to include a beer belly tax to go along with the fat tax? If not, why?
I react badly to taxes because the tax never seems to go away, but the money always seems to go to something other than what it was originally proposed to do. The 911 surcharge on cell phones is being raided to bail out government deficits and buy police uniforms. Why is that, and why can't the police buy their own **** uniforms like the rest of us? Cigarette taxes/settlements going to healthcare is a joke. Lottery funds which were supposed to make our schools better were offset by cuts in school budgets when local governments decided that the money could be better used elsewhere.
Be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it...
If you feed an active young person with a high metabolism a high-fat diet, they'll soak it up without a cent of additional cost to the taxpayer. However, if you feed an old fat guy the same diet, he'll cost the taxpayer more money. That fact alone is enough to realize that a fat tax unfairly redistributes wealth from the young to the old. While you're at it, are you going to include a beer belly tax to go along with the fat tax? If not, why?
I react badly to taxes because the tax never seems to go away, but the money always seems to go to something other than what it was originally proposed to do. The 911 surcharge on cell phones is being raided to bail out government deficits and buy police uniforms. Why is that, and why can't the police buy their own **** uniforms like the rest of us? Cigarette taxes/settlements going to healthcare is a joke. Lottery funds which were supposed to make our schools better were offset by cuts in school budgets when local governments decided that the money could be better used elsewhere.
Be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it...
i agree, it is insane that people are talking about wanting to pay more taxes to an already corrupt government. i am guessing that some of these people don't pay their fair share of taxes already.
aren't more women exempt from the beer belly tax, so that would be sexist! just like the tax on plastic surgery would be sexist the other way since more women get plastic surgery than men.
Whenever the word "tax" comes up people react negatively. The issue here is that are some serious externalities that people are not paying for, instead the costs are being amortized throughout society.
I should not have to pay more for health insurance (or taxes) because my neighborhood has decided to eat badly and is now obese, but that is exactly what has happened with the current system.
Since are health care system is both private and public, taxes would have to be used. You could not rely solely on increasing insurance for obese people because many people don't have insurance in the first place (most notably seniors). Insurance companies can already charge more for health issues, I pay 20% more for my private insurance because I have asthma. The problem is with the group policies, everyone pays the same rate. Now, this is great when we are talking about health issues that are out of your control, but bad when the health issues are within our control. In the latter case the people being good have to subsidize those being bad which gives the people doing bad little incentive to change!
This is ridiculous. What about all the healthy people who eat fatty foods?
I eat beef, bacon, potato chips, french fries, cookies, brownies, drink wine, real (not lite) beer - at least occasionally. I am 50, a competitive swimmer, and have a resting heart rate of 50.
I'm doing my part to be healthy. But I also enjoy good food. Taxing the foods I like to eat because other people can't control their weight is completely unreasonable.
Currently people do not have to pay the costs of eating bad, rather their bad habits are subsidized by the rest of the nation. For example, obese employees do not get charged more for health care than non-obese employees. Instead, the rates are for the entire pool but part of the pricing is the general obesity rate!
Creating a tax on unhealthy foods is a great way to start to charge people for the costs they are incurring on the system. The money can be used to overall the health care system.
Hey Big Brother why don't you leave us alone with your crazy ideas. Since when does any one have the right to force some one to live they way they want them to? Your ideas don’t sound like freedom, but more like a dictatorship. The government and you don't have the right to force your way of living on others.
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