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Thank you. Add in that the more the members use from the pool, the higher the premiums will be at a later date. Throw in sick peoples' higher use of ER's, the possibility that many are uninsured (not even including illegal residents) and the fact that the federal government (us via taxes) covers the expense and we are all affected.
Unhealthier and sick people are subsidized by healthier people. Of course, many illnesses, such as childhood leukemia, are not related to lifestyle. On the other hand, what about people whose lifestyles result in higher levels of illness -smoking, obesity etc? What about people who engage in high risk sports and suffer regular injuries?
Most of our choices impact others on a daily basis.
Well that's how it works in Socialist poster child Sweden. Any citizen or legal resident has the right to the National health Care system. You could be a chain smoker, skidrow drunk, a roaming romeo spreading every type of venereal disease known to science, etc and you have a right to the free services everyone else is forced to pay for. It is however interesting that they won't allow anyone here illegally to use or abuse the system. At least not the way the United States does with it's illegals.
Go figure
Oh, and as far as these folks here being the Greenest on the planet ??? Hardly!!! They're as irresponsible as anyone else in any other country when it comes to being Eco-Green. While they may have been pursuing certain technologies and policies for going that direction, your average Lars, Sven and Ingrid could care less.
They use to have those plain clothes recycling cops here by the recycle bins for giving out citations to those who did'nt put the right item in the correct recepticle. Trust me it's true. However, tax revenues were'nt coming in enough to keep the cops out there, so they are not around anymore.
I was actually shocked when I first moved here to see that the streets, waterways , etc were garbaged up with every kind of filth imaginable. Somehow the theory of them having eco-green built into their very genetics makeup just did'nt jive with the reality of simple observation of their environment.
I don't smoke, but when I take out a health ins or life ins policy,I would be penalized if I did with higher premiums $$$$$$$.--------lifestyle choices
I wonder if that criteria ( lifestyle choices) was enforced with higher premiums then.
The same could be said when AIDS was running rampant thru the gay community in San Francisco.
Some of the same people (and the media) who now blast lifestyles ( smoking, obesity etc) were very quiet back then.
This is getting OT so I'll be brief. AIDS is equal opportunity. The issue isn't orientation but safety, a lifestyle choice that is shouted fairly frequently from the rooftops.
Quote:
Originally Posted by marmac
I don't smoke, but when I take out a health ins or life ins policy,I would be penalized if I did with higher premiums $$$$$$$.--------lifestyle choices
I wonder if that criteria ( lifestyle choices) was enforced with higher premiums then.
probably not cuz that wouldn't be PC.
Lifestyle choices DO affect life insurance because that is simple actuarial fact, nothing non-PC about it.
They also affect health insurance, because health insurance is generally communal - either small group/ large group or Medicade (government) we don't notice it. Smokers who have already had health issues generally can't get an insurance policy.
I find it interesting how much people really fight the idea that personal choices can affect everybody, especially when it comes to green issues.
Everybody will agree that Jeffrey Dahmers choice to eat people negatively affected several others. Nobody has a problem in controlling and legislating such destructive choices.
Why does it make people so angry and so willing to twist logic when faced with the same concept when it is called "Green"? A chicken farmer choosing to dump guano in the wrong place can lead to runoff poisoning the Delaware, affecting millions. Yet all of a sudden suggesting legislation becomes government "interference", the affect "unprovable" and it is all the fantasy of "whiny environmentalists trying to control everybody else".
When the epedemic first hit in San Francisco, it was running rampant in the gay community and was spread thru gay men having anal sex.
Yet, gays were shown marching holding their gay lovers arm and demanding more govt money be spent on finding a cure.
Could you imagine the ridicule if smokers marched in protest, puffing on cigarettes, and demanding a cure be found for lung cancer ?
They would have been laughed at and told to change their lifestyle.
Many people/posters/media display a double standard on--lifestyle--choices based on political correctness.
( especially "greenies" )
I'm sure this will be removed as OT, but this requires a response.
1. AIDS is spread by fluid transmissions (sexual contact, infected needles, blood transfusions etc), not GAY sexual practices. It is a disease that affected a particular community more early on and that community, being generally ignored by the general public brought the disease to the public forum. As it is a disease that affects ALL orientations, in fact being MORE prevalant in the heterosexual community, it is actually a good thing that awareness was raised. It meant that blood stores are checked, preventing transmission via blood transfusions, it meant the end of reusing needles and the promotion of condom use which prevents the transmission of the HIV virus.
Being Gay doesn't cause AIDS.
2. There is no way to smoke and not have it increase the risk of lung cancer, none.
Your comparison is flawed. In order to match smokers puffing and marching for lung cancer cures you would have to have sexually active people, drug addicts and blood transfusion recipients publicly refusing condoms, clean needles and blood testing and marching for AIDS cures.
I'm sure this will be removed as OT, but this requires a response.
1. AIDS is spread by fluid transmissions (sexual contact, infected needles, blood transfusions etc), not GAY sexual practices. It is a disease that affected a particular community more early on and that community, being generally ignored by the general public brought the disease to the public forum. As it is a disease that affects ALL orientations, in fact being MORE prevalant in the heterosexual community, it is actually a good thing that awareness was raised. It meant that blood stores are checked, preventing transmission via blood transfusions, it meant the end of reusing needles and the promotion of condom use which prevents the transmission of the HIV virus.
Being Gay doesn't cause AIDS.
2. There is no way to smoke and not have it increase the risk of lung cancer, none.
Your comparison is flawed. In order to match smokers puffing and marching for lung cancer cures you would have to have sexually active people, drug addicts and blood transfusion recipients publicly refusing condoms, clean needles and blood testing and marching for AIDS cures.
BUT- there is only one way to have sexual intercourse if you are gay, and that invoves a practice that is known to be high risk, because of the increased likelihood of damage to the mucosa causing bleeding.
I am not sure that anyone knows that smoking always increases the risk of lung cancer, because we can only look at smokers who get cancer. There is no way to measure if you "nearly" got it.Just like being gay doesn't cause HIV, smoking doesn't cause lung cancer. If it did then everyone who smoked would get it.
Gay sex is a risk factor for HIV-just like smoking is a risk factor for cancer.
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Hardly!!! 
They're as irresponsible as anyone else in any other country when it comes to being Eco-Green. While they may have been pursuing certain technologies and policies for going that direction, your average Lars, Sven and Ingrid could care less. 
