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To: ZeonZaku
This story isn't about children; it's about old people over 65. There are lots of fat old people who weren't fat as children or young people. Prevention would have been nice, but the horse already escaped the barn, and now we deal with the consequences.

Nor is all overweight in the elderly due to sloth and gluttony; there are medical conditions that cause it. Also, it's unclear if it's really good for many older people (especially women) to try and lose weight in their 70s, as it seems to cause osteoporosis in older women.

16 posted on 07/16/2004 12:09:26 PM PDT by valkyrieanne
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To: valkyrieanne
Wow! Of course obesity is a medical problem! It may have a behavioral component, but so does breaking your neck while skiing, boating, or engaging in other risky behaviors. The fact is, many diseases have a behavioral component, including heart disease unrelated to obesity, diabetes, certain cancers, etc. Go to a rehab center and you'll find people who are in bed or in a wheelchair for life because they drove too fast; you'll see people being treated aggressively for all kinds of behavior-related activities. Elsewhere you'll find people being treated because they took too many drugs or drank too much, others because they self-inflicted wounds, tried to commit suicide, or got injured while earning money by being employed in a risky job (police, nurses, construction workers, firefighters... they all have choices too).
What would the naysayers do, steal health care benefits from all of these people? That is precisely what has happened in the case of obesity; insurance companies have collected hundreds of millions of dollars, BILLLIONS OF DOLLARS in premiums, and then they have sorted out those people that are less valued, more subject to public scorn and shame and have denied them the health care opportunities they paid for.
The ruling comes through Medicare, but ultimately it serves to force insurance companies to allow treatment for weight loss before somebody is 30... 50... 100% or more over the norm of weight for their body. And not all of these people are "lazy," "bored," "stupid," and selfish in the way they are typically characterized in the responses I read thus far.
17 posted on 07/19/2004 10:41:27 PM PDT by TillyCimer (Good News: Jesus Christ will come back one day)
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