Quote:
Originally Posted by stormchaser
People that smoke cigarettes and are obese should pay a higher rate because they are the ones who will need more care in the future or are at the highest risk of needing care. There are so many more unhealthy habits that we could add to the list as well......drugs, excessive drinking.......
I'm sure there is a huge grey area in that last statement but it is frustrating to see people being a drain on our healthcare when they could proactively do something to better themselves and live a healthier life.
I'd also be in favor of lowering someones rate if they went to the gym or led a physically active life. Overall I think it would be fair to impose higher health care rates on those people who don't take care of their health.
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This is really fascinating stuff. Ideally these things make sense, but when you dig deeper you are addressing the wrong side.
Its often people in poverty and low income who are obese because we subsidize crops used to make high calorie, low nutrient foods that is helping lead an epidemic of obesity in the western world.
So you would punish those obese and poor by telling them to pay more, instead of going after the food supply which has become a very high tech way of making food that's unhealthy, low in nutrients, and engineered to be as desirable and addictive as possible by manipulation of the big 3, salt, sugar and fats.
People often just look at fat people and blame them, yeah its easy but there is a much deeper problem and if we are to be serious about doing anything about it you should stop vilifying the obese and looking at what we as a society have become with our food supply being such a toxic supply of unhealthy, high calorie and low nutrient food supply where buying fruits and veg is expensive and fast food is cheap.