If We're Already Paying For The Uninsured Then Where's The Crisis?

The new plan for covering the cost of health care for the uninsured is to tax our employer paid benefits. Unless, that is, you work for a union. So even though our insurance premium rates are rising at a higher level than our salaries, we should pay more to cover those uninsured people. But the Congressional justification for this is that we're already paying for the uninsured in the high prices of care and, therefore, the high cost of our premiums.

So here's my question; if we're already paying for the uninsured why is this a crisis? Why do we have to pass something immediately if the American people are already paying the health care costs of those uninsured? If those 47 million uninsured, which includes illegal aliens, people who are offered insurance but decline it, and those uninsured for a matter of days through the year, are already getting their costs covered then what's the big deal?

Congress is now trying to tell us it will be a wash. OK. So as soon as they start taxing my employer paid benefits then my premiums will go down, right? Don't think so. It will take years for the premium amounts to change to reflect a lowering in health care costs, if it ever happens at all. Which I doubt. What will actually happen is that the health insurance premiums will continue to rise for years, but we'll just be paying taxes on those higher rates as well. Many of us have already forgone raises or taken pay cuts in order to keep our jobs and the jobs of others within our companies, but now our take home pay will decrease again due to yet another tax.

And what happened to the promise that 95% of the population would not have a tax increase under this administration? This will definitely be a tax increase on people of all levels of pay as long as they are responsible enough to take the coverage offered by their employer. And what will the new tax rate on our coverage be? Too dang high is my guess.

So maybe we just all just opt out of our employer offered coverage so we not only don't get a tax increase, but we get more take home pay and somebody else to pay for our health care. Sounds like a plan to me.

Fat People - Acceptable Descrimination

There has been a lot of talk about the impact of the overweight people on our health care system and even on global warming. Don't you know fat people are to blame for everything? It has been said by some that the obese are putting undue stress on our health care system because of their "lifestyle choices". I say butt out of my lifestyle choices.

As a perpetually pudgy person, I object to these statements. They make is sound like being thin is an easy thing and obesity is just a matter of being lazy. Different body types deal with food and exercise differently and it's not always easy to be thin. For some people it's very difficult to be thin. It takes incredible sacrifice. So if you're thin, good for you, but don't assume it's that easy for everybody.

My mother was very thin when she was younger, but 3 kids in 3 years changed her metabolism and the weight kept piling on. Now in her 60's she's doing a real battle to get her weight under control. She's making progress but it's not coming easily. Her diet is very, very strict and includes foods that I don't want to eat. Not only that, but the weight loss is causing her to lose her hair as well. And she didn't have much to start with. She says that giving up fast food helped her the most but sometimes she just really craves a hamburger.

I've tried changing my eating habits and have not lost weight. I've tried exercising, something I despise, and have not lost weight. Even if I lose some, if my routine gets interrupted, I gain it right back. So according to critics, my lifestyle choice is to blame, and to satisfy them I need to choose a lifestyle I don't enjoy. By the way, I rarely go to the doctor and my biggest health care issue is insomnia, totally unrelated to my weight. So these general statements about the burden fat people put on our health care system is a stereotype and pretty offensive to some of us pudgeballs.

For many overweight people, the lifestyle choice they must make in order to lose weight is to make their whole life about their weight. Nearly every decision my mother makes now is based on her weight loss plan. I don't want my life to revolve around my calorie intake to usage ratio. If I want to read a book from cover to cover, I don't want to have to think about the exercise I'm not getting. If I go out to dinner with friends I don't want to have to analyze the menu to determine what's the safest vs the tastiest option. I don't want my every thought and my every action to center around the size of my body. Would I like to be thin? Of course I would. But just because I'd like to be doesn't mean that getting there is easy.

Losing weight is very, very difficult for many people and to say we are obese due to our "lifestyle choice" trivializes the battles many of us go through daily. And yet, even though our difficulties may be genetic and not something we can control, we are stigmatized, ridiculed and discriminated against. So what will they do with us if we go to nationalized health care? Will we be denied coverage if we don't get to an acceptable weight? Will our choice about what we eat and the activities we engage in be taken from us? I'm afraid that's where we're going.