Meet Fat America! And You Pay For It

The Economist introduces us to Hamlin, West Virginia.

Hamlin is one of the fattest, most unhealthiest towns in America where people seem to be content to eat themselves into a miserable life and an early death. In this Huntington, WV metro town - one of the most unhealthiest in America - the people literally buy tubs of lard so big that they come with the label: "Warning - Children can fall into bucket and drown." What do these people do with so much lard? One Hamlinian says "people now say lard isn't good for you, But it's what we grew up with."

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Given the nutritional - of lack thereof - habits of the people, it is not surprising that the statistics are so shocking and just saddening. "Some 77% of adults are overweight; an incredible 46% are clinically obese. Some 13% of adults have diabetes, 22% of those over the age of 45 have heart disease, and nearly half the over-65s have lost all their teeth." And on top of poor eating, 26 of West Virginians smoke and 16% - the highest rate in the nation - of men chew tobacco which is to one's health riskier still.

The Obama administration has plans to help such people: You Pay For It. That's the new America that Obama wants. One where the prudent and responsible have to subsidize the free-spending, shiftlessness and irresponsible ways of other Americans. After all, if Americans who saved their money and lived within their means have to pay the mortgage of Americans whom sought to live in a bigger home with LCDs, why not have healthy Americans pay the medical costs of those whom lack self-control in dieting.

One thing that Obama wants to do is to force companies - by threat of financial penalty - to provide health care for all employees. A while back an American businessman agreed to offer all his employees health care provided they lived healthy lives - including stop smoking - so as to not increase the firm's health bills. Sounds responsible, right? Your employer doesn't have to provide you health care, but he is.

And all you have to do is to make sure that you don't needlessly impair your health. And if you cannot keep up your side of the bargain, this is America and you may seek employment elsewhere. But for today's entitlement-minded liberals, it is the boss who is in the wrong and the workers entitled more so. The firm had to fend off "discrimination" lawsuits on grounds that the firm's generosity cannot be limited to only those whom are health conscience. The Obama administration would end such "discriminatory" ways.

The Obama administration also wants to force firms to start - and this is still a maybe - building gyms in their offices akin to regulation of, say, fire escapes.

The administration may also raise "taxes on booze, cigarettes and sugary drinks," force restaurants to provide smaller portions and embark on a nanny-state advertisement campaign to encourage healthy eating.

The administration intends to shelf-off $630 billion over the next ten years as an initial investment toward universal health care. Barack Obama has repeatedly declared that all those who like their private health insurance can keep it without no trouble from the state. But this may not be the case as the administration intends to open up government health insurance to all Americans - currently only a small segment of the population may qualify for Medicare and Medicaid - and as a study by Michael Tanner of the Cato Institution - Washington think-tank - predicts, according to The Economist, "that government insurance will crowd out private insurance.

The government could offer insurance cheaply by dumping part of the cost on future taxpayers, and so crush its private competitors. If that happens, hospitals will be squeezed.

Currently, patients with private insurance cross-subsidise those in government schemes. (A typical hospital enjoys a profit margin of 48% on each privately insured patient and suffers a 44% loss on each patient covered by Medicaid, the government programme for the poor, according to McKinsey, a consultancy.) If that subsidy disappears because there are fewer private patients left to pay it, hospitals will have to cut back. European-style queues may form, the sceptics fret."

Financial penalties and regulatory costs for businesses, undercutting private competition, huge increase in the federal budget paid for by future taxpayers.... There are a lot of costs involved in health insurance, and it's spread out amongst many group. But there seems to be one person not paying his share: the irresponsible.

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[You pay the costs, but Big O enjoys the free ride.]

There are many decent people who get sick through no fault of their own, and maybe if they don't have the money for treatment the taxpayers can cover the cost. That's a debate for another time. But what is immoral is for the state to force Americans who take great effort to stay in shape to end up paying the costs of treatment for their lazy neighbor who thinks lard is an all-use topping.

I work out almost every day and watch what I eat, the very notion that I will have a portion of my salary taken away - a portion I can use to better myself and my family [when that day comes] - to pay for reckless behavior elsewhere is an affront to ethics, morality, American individualism, and decency.

America's health care costs are so out of control is because there is no accountability. Under Medicare [for the elderly] and Medicaid [for the indigent] all health care bills are paid for regardless of purpose. I purpose ending all federal payments for any health care problems incurred through irresponsible behavior. Diabetes, heart disease, lung cancer, ect... should be paid for out of pocket. You earned that state of health through your actions, YOU - not me - pays for it.

That is only fair. What Obama purposes is to take us to an America where personal responsibility is a luxury not a testament to a person's character. That is why he consistently derides the idea of a "ownership society" as being nothing more than selfish "you're on your own" rhetoric. Call it whatever you want, but if you get sick because you're too lazy, then I shamelessly say you're on your own! In a fair society, I should not have to pay your way to diabetes.

Not only that, but if you have private insurance and wonder why your health care bills are so large, it's because hospitals have to overcharge privately-insured patients to cover the losses of those insured by state-programs, a great deal of whom are getting services for aliments due to irresponsible living. So millions of American sick with diseases due to reasons of nature have to spend enormous amounts of money for treatment - overpaying - because the federal governments forces hospitals to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients for any circumstance no matter the condition of the patient.

And the state relies on other Americans to indirectly cover the costs of health care. This is a path toward decadency that will ruin what makes America the greatest nation. The chutzpah of liberals is that they never tire of forcing one group of people to pay the costs of another with no concern for ethics and moral logic.

Personal responsibility is the only remedy to health care, at least do that first and then I'll consider taxpayer-funded programs.