Posted on 04/11/2011 11:29:32 AM PDT by neverdem
Offering incentives for lifestyle choices likely to cut medical costs is an idea worth considering.
If an individual's body mass index isn't a purely personal matter, what is? We have the right to choose between healthy food or junk food, even if the latter is more likely to result in obesity and related health problems. But once our choices affect others, there's a natural conflict between individual freedom and social responsibility. In a nation where rising healthcare costs and diminished access to medical care are issues of grave concern, personal decisions are no longer strictly private. The treatment of obesity- and smoking-related disease is tremendously expensive, which in turns drives up health insurance premiums for everyone, as well as raising the costs for Medicaid, Medicare and health coverage for public employees.
These legitimate concerns have resulted in a raft of nanny-state proposals to shape the public's dietary habits by taxing this food or that drink or by outlawing free toys that accompany unhealthy children's meals at some restaurants. Such proposals raise inevitable questions of fairness and effectiveness. Does it make sense to tax a can of soda but not a fruit juice that contains more calories per cup and very little additional nutrition? Would a vitamin-fortified soda be exempt from the tax? And it's hard to figure out whether the bigger obesity culprit is a small order of fried chicken at a fast-foot outlet or a giant slab of prime rib at a pricey restaurant. Or, as many dietitians now think, maybe it's the carbs; has the time come for a public pasta tax? In any case, there is much uncertainty about whether such tactics would have any effect on the country's collective bulging belly.
We prefer the approach most recently proposed in Arizona, where officials hope to levy...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
A fat tax would be DOA. Why? Because women and non-Asian minorities would be disproportionately affected.
End of story.
How about open season on fascists, no bag limit, $10 an ear.
The BMI is a flawed statistic. An individual who is 5’10” must fit within a 30 pound window to be considered ideal weight. This does not account for gender, age, body frame or muscle to fat ratio. The ideal weight for all individuals was decreased by 10 pounds in 1998. They changed the guidelines and inflated the obesity statistics to create a crisis.
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9806/17/weight.guidelines/
No laws or taxes should be made solely on the BMI.
This is a slippery slope.
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