Self-composed

I’ve been warning people about this for years. I warned about it in my award winning blog post in the first iteration of this blog in 2003, and I’ve written about it more recently right here.

On Friday, the State Employees’ Insurance Board announced a new plan beginning next year in which state employees will be required to receive medication screenings for several conditions, including body mass index. Those considered obese or who have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or high glucose will have to pay $25 a month more in health insurance beginning in January 2011, if they don’t take steps to address their health problems. Alabama to place ‘fat tax’ on obese state employees | Booster Shots | Los Angeles Times

From my blog article in 2003:

The people discriminating against the smokers do so on the grounds that its too expensive to pay the health care costs of someone who is potentially taking risks with their long-term health. They think its unfair, if they’re going to pick up the bill for someones health care, that the person can engage it behavior likely to increase the amount of those medical bills. I can’t really disagree with the logic.

While we’re at it, I’d also like to see public employees prohibited from having high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and being fat. Those are all risk factors for heart disease – a very expensive malady, and anyone suffering from them needs to be removed immediately from the government payroll. Oh yeah, the ones who pass their blood pressure tests and get to keep their job need to be forced to exercise three times a week. On their own time.

Now that they’re saying fast food and junk food increases your risk of cancer, any government employee caught indulging in a Big Mac can get canned just like the cop that was fired after someone wrote a anonymous letter accusing him of smoking at a party.

That all sounds pretty silly doesn’t it? But can you tell me where I crossed the line from rational to unreasonable?

The funny thing is, when I wrote that five years ago, I did think it sounded silly. It seemed like I was stretching a little to make the point. It seemed difficult to imagine the state actually shaking fat people down. Now they are. This is Big Brother folks. He sucked you in by promising to take care of your every need, now he’s telling you what your body will be like and punishing you financially if it doesn’t meet government approval.

The old axiom applies, when you give the government power to do everything for you, you give the government power to do anything to you. I said recently in The Seven Things to Think About Before Supporting National Health Care:

Once the government is paying the bill for your healthcare, the government may eventually feel obligated to help you make the best decisions concerning your health.

Good news and bad news. The good news: Hawaii Ending Universal Child Health Care.   The bad news: My tax dollars have already been spent on freeloaders for seven months.

Gov. Linda Lingle’s administration cited budget shortfalls and other available health care options for eliminating funding for the program. A state official said families were dropping private coverage so their children would be eligible for the subsidized plan.

“People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free,” said Dr. Kenny Fink, the administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services. “I don’t believe that was the intent of the program.”

“Yeah, but Eric, what about those poor kids who’s parents really really really can’t afford to buy health care for their kids?”  Well, you could give up eating fast food….or:

Families with children currently enrolled in the universal system are being encouraged to seek more comprehensive Medicaid coverage, which may be available to children in a family of four earning up to $73,000 annually.

What most people fail to realize is the vast majority of America’s uninsured either qualify for assistance already in place or they can easily afford it themselves.

These children also could sign up for the HMSA Children’s Plan, which costs about $55 a month.

$55 - that means dropping the premium cable channels, no more going to the theater (or no more popcorn when you do), no more fast food and dining out, two hours of work per week at a minimum wage job, or maybe it means no more smoking, alcohol, or drugs.

2 hours of work a week will pay for children's health care

Best of all, when someone else coughs up a piddly $55 a month, it means I don’t have to pay for their kids going to the doctor.

Related: Seven things to think about before supporting national health care