Big Food vs. Big Insurance

The New York Times ^ | SEPTEMBER 9, 2009 | MICHAEL POLLAN AND GRANT JUNKIE

[Eric Blair 2084]

TO listen to President Obama’s speech on Wednesday night, or to just about anyone else in the health care debate, you would think that the biggest problem with health care in America is the system itself — perverse incentives, inefficiencies, unnecessary tests and procedures, lack of competition, and greed.

No one disputes that the $2.3 trillion we devote to the health care industry is often spent unwisely, but the fact that the United States spends twice as much per person as most European countries on health care can be substantially explained, as a study released last month says, by our being fatter. Even the most efficient health care system that the administration could hope to devise would still confront a rising tide of chronic disease linked to diet.

That’s why our success in bringing health care costs under control ultimately depends on whether Washington can summon the political will to take on and reform a second, even more powerful industry: the food industry.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three-quarters of health care spending now goes to treat “preventable chronic diseases.” Not all of these diseases are linked to diet — there’s smoking, for instance — but many, if not most, of them are.

We’re spending $147 billion to treat obesity, $116 billion to treat diabetes, and hundreds of billions more to treat cardiovascular disease and the many types of cancer that have been linked to the so-called Western diet. One recent study estimated that 30 percent of the increase in health care spending over the past 20 years could be attributed to the soaring rate of obesity, a condition that now accounts for nearly a tenth of all spending on health care.

[Eric Blair 2084]

A fascinating journey through the liberal mind and what they are up to.

In a free market there would be no such thing as community rating. Lard asses, drunks, crack whores with 8 kids from 8 different fathers, smokers, skydivers could be rated differently.

In the absence of that feature, gubmint is left to social engineering and state sponsored coercion and cajoling to reduce medical costs.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Big Brother, Nanny State, Grant Junkie, Bogus Study, Junk Science, Social Engineering, Egalitarian, Central Planning, Sheeple Control, Food Cop, Smoke Nazi, Socialism, Collectivism

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____________________________________________________________________

Constitution of the Left Wing Nanny State of Liberals:

Picture courtesy of unixfox. All rights reserved. Copyright MMVII. Any use of the pictures descriptions or accounts of this ping without the express written consent of unixfox, Eric Blair, or Major League Baseball is strictly prohibited. Some restrictions apply. Ping not available in all states. For erections lasting longer than four hours, call the Guiness Book of World Records. Use only as directed.

Preamble:

We the People Sheeple of the United States Nanny State, in Order to form a more perfect Union Socialist Utopia, establish Justice Socially engineer a country of non smoking, physically fit, seat belt and helmet wearing teetotalers, ensure domestic Tranquility Smoking bans in bars, limits on unhealthy food and social drinking, provide for the common defense Universal Healthcare, promote the general Welfare health of the population whether they like it or not, in order to save above mentioned Universal Healthcare entitlement program from bankruptcy, and secure the Blessings of Liberty Dependency to ourselves progressive liberals and our Posterity Hitler Youth who we brainwash through public school education, do ordain decree and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Nanny State of Liberals.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Big Brother, Nanny State, Grant Junkie, Bogus Study, Junk Science, Social Engineering, Egalitarian, Central Planning, Sheeple Control, Food Cop, Smoke Nazi, Socialism, Collectivism

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Eric, you are a genius add me to your ping list or Eric, you are a jackass, take me off this ping list

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____________________________________________________________________

Constitution of the Left Wing Nanny State of Liberals:

Picture courtesy of unixfox. All rights reserved. Copyright MMVII. Any use of the pictures descriptions or accounts of this ping without the express written consent of unixfox, Eric Blair, or Major League Baseball is strictly prohibited. Some restrictions apply. Ping not available in all states. For erections lasting longer than four hours, call the Guiness Book of World Records. Use only as directed.

Preamble:

We the People Sheeple of the United States Nanny State, in Order to form a more perfect Union Socialist Utopia, establish Justice Socially engineer a country of non smoking, physically fit, seat belt and helmet wearing teetotalers, ensure domestic Tranquility Smoking bans in bars, limits on unhealthy food and social drinking, provide for the common defense Universal Healthcare, promote the general Welfare health of the population whether they like it or not, in order to save above mentioned Universal Healthcare entitlement program from bankruptcy, and secure the Blessings of Liberty Dependency to ourselves progressive liberals and our Posterity Hitler Youth who we brainwash through public school education, do ordain decree and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Nanny State of Liberals.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Lefty mind: blame the thing, not its misuse.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Uuuuuhh, like, Eric you dillweed you just like hit the thingy twice.....uhhh....dumbass!!!

[muawiyah]

The New York Times is so behind ~ they are complaining that diabetes is a preventable disease.

To start with it's not really a "disease" ~ it genetic in nature ~ if you don't have the genes for it then it's not going to develop no matter what you eat, do, or catch.

The symptoms are controllable to a great degree by a variety of means.

The NYT people are much more likely to die of AIDS than they are of diabetes ~ which may explain their lack of interest in the science behind other diseases ~ there's that NYT "trigger word" ~ BEHIND. Yup, that's their problem. Too much "behinding going on".

[FromLori]

[Eric Blair 2084]

[Eric Blair 2084]

I think you are talking about Type 1 or adult onset diabetes.

Type 2, while not entirely preventable, is caused often by gorging on fried chicken and fried cheese curds.

[eldoradude]

the United States spends twice as much per person as most European countries on health care can be substantially explained... by our being fatter.

Obama and gang have a plan for that too...print so much money that the dollar will eventually be worth about one tenth of what it is now. Nobody will be able to afford food, so everyone will be 'healthier' in a state of starvation.

I remember msm articles on how much 'healthier' (lower cholesterol etc) the POWs were when they returned from Viet Nam because they had been subsisting on a low fat diet during their years of captivity.

[muawiyah]

Type 2 is NOT caused by any such thing. The conditions that arise as a consequence of having the genes that make it possible may well be exacerbated by the starch (carbohydrates) contained in the flour used to bred the fried chicken, but everything else you named is your basic fat/protein globules ~ which have no negative effect whatsoever on diabetics ~ whether Type I or Type II.

[Eric Blair 2084]

I dunno. I read it in the NY Times, so it must be true.

What the hell do I know?

[muawiyah]

A very low fat diet is a doggone good way to drive your triglycerides to new heights ~ 2000 pts perhaps? How about 8000 pts? You don’t want to give up eating fat every day so that the enzymes that metabolize triglycerides are released to do their thing.

[muawiyah]

The New York Times has fired all its science “fact checkers” obviously. I think it’s the AIDS thing ~ they don’t want to hear about how it’s going to kill them all.

[muawiyah]

It’s the breading.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Obama and gang have a plan for that too...print so much money that the dollar will eventually be worth about one tenth of what it is now. Nobody will be able to afford food, so everyone will be 'healthier' in a state of starvation.

At least we would be able to say Our country used to be great. Some countries never even get that much.

[FromLori]

lol I know

[Eric Blair 2084]

Here’s the money shot from the slimes op-ed piece....

“As for the insurers, you would think preventing chronic diseases would be good business, but, at least under the current rules, it’s much better business simply to keep patients at risk for chronic disease out of your pool of customers, whether through lifetime caps on coverage or rules against pre-existing conditions or by figuring out ways to toss patients overboard when they become ill.

But these rules may well be about to change — and, when it comes to reforming the American diet and food system, that step alone could be a game changer. “

In other words, we need to turn one big lobbying corporation against the other. Same way we turned Big Pharma against Big Tobacco.

[Eric Blair 2084]

The New York Times has fired all its science “fact checkers” obviously.

[elkfersupper]

To start with it's not really a "disease" ~ it genetic in nature ~

The scores of affirmative-action fat chicks at work repeat that ad nauseum.

I couldn't even get into the parking lot this morning due to the parade waddling back and forth from the McDonald's across the street.

Can't even put one foot in front of the other.

All I could do to keep from mashing them into a greasy spot with the F-350.