If you're fat you're more likely to need health treatment than if you're thin. So having healthcare cost fat people more than thin people should help both to encourage them to address their weight problem, and also provide money to treat them if they don't. Whether you have government provided healthcare/insurance or privately provided insurance, it makes sense to have a 'fat tax'. Why should thin people have to subsidise the fat (which is what happens if both are charged equally)?

This whole issue wouldn't be an issue at all if everyone was just responsible for their own healthcare.

i guess "in so many ways" is broad enough to incorporate subliminal (assuming there is some sorta technology in play to transmit otherwise invisible instructions to online readers--and i'm not positive that ain't the case).  otherwise, if political advocacy motivated that article, someone needs to refund their fee or be fired. 

wait.

omaha...obama?

those sneaky mofos!

Great idea! Blacks are shown to have higher propensity for heart disease let levy a tax on them. Old people, why waste the resources. Handicapped, either born that way or created through accident, shouldn't they be taxed more too? Now I know your augment, people aren't born fat, and your right, but just how easy is it to put some "high" risk person on the list to increase revenue for "free" heath care? This concept is supposed to be compassion for the poor, yet aren't they the most unhealthy people in the US. But it's a case of pick and choose your flavor of the day for who gets that compassion.

Now if a health provider wants to charge a fat person more for health insurance, fine that's between the insurer and the consumer. Maybe you can explain to me why the fatty should pay more in taxes to cover the paraplegic, who may be a bigger drain on resources under a national health care plan? For that matter why should I pay the same tax when there are people half my age that use medical services way more than I do? Redistribution of wealth, that's all it really is, wrapped up in a nice little socialist package. You can keep it.

Other than the statement you found somewhere do you have any facts to back this up? I have not experienced this to be true and I have a lot of fat friends. Not only are they fat but they seem to pay their own way. While the homeless kids and families I take in each year are skinny and have a host of healt issues. I have a girlfriend the weighs 297 and other than beign a cancer survivor she was healthy. well she has a bad back from doing so much heavy lifting at work, (nurse) I have a girl friend that weighs 105 pounds that has a bad back from being an arobics instructor, so which one costs me money? the skinny one because she can't seem to keep a job while the fat one likes to eat so she makes sure she has a job and health insurance.

Ah yes, anecdotal evidence - always the most reliable!

Anyway here's one study for your reference:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12151467

I'll summarise one of the results of it - if you're obese you're twice as likely to suffer from heart failure. It's also linked to numerous other health problems from the mild to the serious.

It also makes sense intuitively - you don't get fat eating healthy food such as fruit+veg, for example, so it'd be expected that people who are thinner are more likely to eat fewer unhealthy foods which would lead to weight gain, and hence be more likely to eat a higher proportion of the health foods, hence improving their health. Similarly if you're fat it could well be due to a lack of exercise, which again would be expected to have a negative impact on your health.

They're not likely to stop there.  I'm not makin' this shit up.

Quite true.  And if we were talking about cattle, I'd have no problems with the notion.  Humans with free will, on the other hand...

The good news is that you believe myths as facts. the bad news is that lawmakers do too. you can lose weight without exercise, you can gain weight with exercise. Your body regulates your weight and any stress will cause it to gain weight. Sudden weight loss will cause your body to pack on the pounds which is why crash diets don’t work long term and do more harm than good. It does not matter what you eat or how much you eat you can regulate your weight by diet but not exercise. Fruits have loads of sugar and if your body believes it needs to gain weight you will pack on the pounds with anything you eat. The body without the mind seeks normal, any change will cause it to gain or lose weight. I had a shock to my system from a threat, I went from 250 to 207 in one week without change in diet and I have not exercised since leaving the military 20 years ago. My new normal is 217. Let a terrorist threaten you or your family and your body will react ether by gaining or losing weight.

Humans with free will, hence they CHOOSE what they eat, and are directly responsible for whether they're fat or not. If people had no control over it, and were taxed/charged more, it could be argued to be unfair. Arguing that when people do have control makes no sense though. Again, if someone chooses to do something to their body, why should I be asked to pay for it?

Right, exercise can't help with weight loss, fruit+veg aren't healthier for you than chocolate and deep fried food, and all the studies showing a link between obesity and poor health are all pieces of mythology...

I prefer the more straightforward logic, which in simplified form is:

Your body requires x energy. This increases with exercise. You get y energy from food. If you get more energy from food than you use (y>x), your body stores it as fat, => if you eat more than you use, you become fatter. I can also back this up with anecdotal evidence - when I eat loads of food, my weight rises. When I eat very little, it falls. I haven't heard of anyone whose weight (normally) rises the less they eat while falling the more they eat.

You make my point without realizing it.  Not only should what I eat be none of your business, paying for my health insurance shouldn't be either.

My question is who is asking us to pay for what other people do? UHC requires us to pay for others mistakes, private healthcare does not.

Can help is not the same as will help or always helps. It all depends on your body. My weight has been stable for years no matter what I ate and I don't exercise. Who are you to tell me what I should or should not eat? Why is the government wiser than anyone else in what is good for me? I remember the healh experts saying that coffee is bad for you then five years later we are told that coffee helps prevent certian forms of cancer. Oat brand was bad now it is good. I remember Jim Fix and his books on running for a healthier life. He died of a heartattack while running for a better life at age 52. I did not exercise and am now 53. I have never met anyone that has survived life. Everyone will die of something. If you like to exercise and it makes you feel better then be happy and do it. You do not have the right to tell me I must do it. I have cancer, I have been smoking since I was 14, I have been drinking since I was 30, My liver is fine and so are my lungs. I know this because I just finished having my body probed and scanned and prodded by experts. I don't eat grean stuff or any of that so called health food. Oh and the latest study from the NIH says that organicly grown food has no more nutritional value than regular food. So all the experts that have been telling you to eat organic were wrong until the next study comes out saying otherwise. I have eaten fried foods most of my life. maybe its chocolate, I dont' like that stuff much. I should have eaten more chocolate. All I know is that people that eat healthy still die.

My skinny girlfriend, she went on a slimfast diet and gained weight.That was because she had zero body fat to begin with and there was too much fat in slimfast for her body. My mother went strictly vegitarian the last 10 years of her life. She died of lung cancer. She never smoked and rarely drank. She ballooned up her last few years because she stopped eating right.Tofu rice fruits and vegies were the only things she ate. It did not help her with her cancer or her weight gain. You are suggesting a one size fits all and it has been proven not to work.

Exactly right D. We all live until we die, nothing will make you live longer and if you live the so called healthy life you will just die healthy.

It is my business if I have to pay for it.

With insurance you pay for fatties with higher premiums. With publicly provided you pay for them with higher taxes. Either way, you end up paying.

Who are you to tell me I should have to pay for you?

No one puts a gun to your head & forces you to buy insurance.  You, on the other hand, would like a gun put to everyone else's head to force them to pay for your healthcare.  So whose business is whose, exactly?

It should also be your business to ask your local govt why you are paying for it as oppose to forcing people to change their habits so you don't have to. I'm confused as to why do you think it's OK to pay for other peoples insurance so long as they are health but when it comes to them chosing to make themselves unhappy all of a sudden you are complaining aboiut why do you have to pay for it.

Here's a better question to your ridiculous question. Why should I pay at all for people who like surfing in shark infested waters, who like skydiving and sometimes their shoot fails or they don't land properly, who skateboard on handrails and stairways, who work on roofs without proper gear, who scubadive in dangerous waters, who jump in pools when they can't swim, who have kids they then don't want to take care of, who like driving above speed limits, who drive while intoxicated, who work on electrical systems without the proper training, permits or license, who like doing shows in zoos with dangerous animals like lions and gators, who play with sex toys and things that were not meant to be sex toys and get hurt, who sell drugs, who buy drugs, who are just too lazy to read labels and get sick, who text while driving, who talk on the phone while driving, who put on make-up while driving, who buy dangerous pets that then bite them, eyc? I can go on. All these people choose to put themselves in danger, why should anyone be responsible for their healthcare be it thru higher premiums or higher taxes for free healthcare?

If you want to play these "why should I" games, you need to be willing to play hard, bring everything you got and more and be willing to go the distance; because you either bitch about everything that's wrong or nothing but you can't pick and chose what you think is right and whats wrong so long as it doesn't affect you and your loved ones.