Posted on 07/22/2010 11:15:40 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Germany's health system is funded by a series of mandatory health insurance funds, all of which are reporting serious deficits as the system is overused.
Recently the German Teachers' Association recommended weighing children in class each day and reporting the seriously overweight to social services, who would have the power to remove them to clinics.
"The question must be admitted whether the immense costs that, for example, arise from excessive consumption of food, can be permanently paid out of the consolidated health system," said Marco Wanderwitz, the conservative MP for the state of Saxony.
"I think it's sensible that people who knowingly live unhealthily carry a responsibility for it in a financial respect," said Mr Wanderwitz, who is also head of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats's group of young parliamentarians . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Interesting. I would say no way but I can’t get past that picture. Perhaps the threat of a tax would cause this chick to get some of those pounds off of her. That is pretty sick.
Heroin chic.
I think german MPs should pay a special tax for being german MPs.
Next up, stupid people will have to pay a stupidity tax for all the dumb choices they make that affect society negatively.
Libs, get ready to shell out some Obamacash.
That woman appears to have two pairs of hips.
I still wouldn’t make her pay a fat tax though.
She should have a special tax for failure to wear appropriately sized clothing. ...or someone should buy her a full-length mirror.
I think that Obama is headed that direction with US healthcare using the fradulent BMI as the metric.
How about a moo moo for the moo???
Upinzy yours Fritz.
Coming soon to the U.S. With this new finacial regulation just passed the government can now track every purchase you make. I guess if you make more than visit a week to Mcdonalds we will get hit with this fat tax. The government will say we can tell you what to eat because we provide your healthcare to. We are so screwed.
If you require 3x as much medical care because you chose to shove brownies and cakes down your throat, you should have to pay 3x as much. It is only fair. Forcing others who have made better choices to subsidize your medical care is socialism in the purest sense of the word.
To argue otherwise is to say that people should be able to do whatever the hell they want and then get their neighbors, friends, and family to pay for it. That is theft by way of taxation.
Nanny state ‘conservative’, rather like Hucklebee, except on this issue, naturally.
Bone mass increases, muscle to fat ratio conforms to work.
One more reason to repeal Obamacare.
I KNEW IT! 5 years ago, we make fun of the fat tax, now it becomes reality
Yawohl, Mien Fuhrer!
Undt while you are at, you should also serve three meals per day in der community kitchens, undt outlaw the sale, possession, growing, cooking, or production of food udder than in or for der community kitchens undt hopitals.
Special rehabilitation work camps could be built to sweat the excess avoirdupois off of offenders, while obtaining useful labor from them.
Remember: "Work sets you free!"
The citizenry DID carry a financial responsibility for unhealthy behavior, BEFORE you "gave" them socialized medicine.
Now, rather than an incentive to live healthfully, they have an incentive to USE the system, "in order to get their money's worth" out of it.
The more you tax them for health care, the more they will (ab)use the health care system for every ache, pain, and sideways fart.
we laugh at this now, but it becomes a reality in the future. The fat tax used to be a satire, now its reality
Yep. Hard work in my youth has served me well later--I have only broken a couple of fingers, despite some pretty harrowing experiences, and I'm a great-grandpa now.
The problem with the BMI calcualtion is that it is based on height and little else. If body fat was the metric, the measure would be more fair. Either way, I do not think physical characteristics should be taxed--the State does not own me, at least in theory, the Government works for me, at my consent (which is diminishing rapidly).
When government controls your healthcare, they eventually control your life.
Its all about control.
“Land of the Free”
No more.
I agree,rich people,fat people,athletic people,musicians,dumb people and most of all,IDIOT “politicians” who dream this shit up should pay 100% of a tax for being RETARDED!
Any truthful doctor or medical personnel will tell you preventive medicine saves zero denero.
All these self righteous government health schemes are nothing more than revenue enhancers.
Personally, I count down my demise one week earlier, from 120 years, every time I chose to eat a steak.
yitbos
Bone density and muscle mass can make you ‘fat’.
Height really shouldn’t have much to do with it.
Instead, they need long bone density measurements, and a set of fasting nude weights, both on land and in a pool (after an over night colonoscopy-type purging) to calculate fairly true muscle to fat ratios.
Or, maybe they could just run everyone through airport body scanners, then use height, weight, and girth measurments....
How much would the “clinics” cost compared to just leaving people alone?
This woman seriously needs a What-Not-to-Wear wakeup call.
we'll work on a list but I'll bet every freeper does something to impinge their health....and I'M NOT PAYING FOR IT SO THERE....
welcome to tyranny....
Yep. The way BMI is calcualted, it can, even if you aren't.
Has anyone considered genetics?
Probably not since that doesn’t nicely fit people into a collective mold.
its a two way street....
what goes around comes around and this nazi tactic will bite a good many people in their arses before the tyrants are through....
The Obammunist is creating more goobmint yobs.
yitbos
“This woman seriously needs a What-Not-to-Wear wakeup call.”
I totally agree. Your point is very well taken...at least, by this always underweight on the BMI when I’m not person.
I'll bet there is no instance, on a death certificate, of "smoking" listed as cause of death.
yitbos
Congressman Nadler explains to reporters that under the U.S. version of this tax, Congress and its staff will be exempt as in the case of the Obamacare mandate.
Plain and simple one can not tax people for being over weight. Dumbest idea i have heard of in a very long time. And in closing lets tax shinny people too since the ones i see constantly have colds, running noses, and a variety of maladies that never seem to go away.
Looks like i should have been dead about 15 years ago and i am healthy as can be.
First of all, I didn't ask for the government to pay for my healthcare. I pay my own way, as do the majority of responsible adults in this country. This collectivist bullshit was shoved down my throat, against my wishes. Part of the reason why I oppose it has been brought to light by your comment. I don't want your moralizing about why you think I'm a defective human being and should pay accordingly.
So please, spare me your righteousness. There are many things that people choose to do which can possibly degrade their health or put them at risk of bodily harm. I'm sure if I scrutinized your lifestyle I could find at least a few that I could tut-tut. You're just falling in line with the latest trendy socialist busybody know-it-all jihad. Since the battle to demonize smokers is pretty much won, it's on to the next target.
Why don’t people just pay for their own health insurance?
Won’t work in the US though, because so many obese people are already on disability (supposedly for back problems... caused by the weight), so they likely wouldn’t be taxed.
Instead, they’ll probably tax gyms or even jogging to help fund the healthcare for the fat people.
It can be argued that fit people use more health care services in a lifetime because they live longer. If this scheme is implemented in some form, the greatest unintended consequence will be that health care costs will go up, not down
something kills everyone....should they all pay premiums based on their personal susceptibilities?
they’ve played that game with car insurance.
the whole point of insurance is to lump everyone together to get an average cost of injury, to charge people at a level that the company will probably make money given that average.
that’s the best way to preserve freedom. I find it no better to have an insurance company telling me how to become their ideal little clone than having the government do it.
there are fat people and skinny people in life. there are high cholesterol folks and low cholesteral folks. High BP and low BP. Strong hearts, weak hearts.
If you approve their going after one weakness, then watch out when they come after yours.
Here's a good one...young females. They could get pregnant and that's not cheap. Old people...cuz they take too many damn pills that cost an arm and a leg.
Any high risk category, sky divers scuba divers, cave divers, rock climbers, military personnel...tax them for participating in dangerous activities that could cause expensive healthcare costs.
Beer drinkers, cigarette smokers, meat eaters, motorcyclists...tax 'em!
A couple years back, a Swedish PM called for a “man tax”, arguing that since men were overwhelming the source of domestic violence, they should pay to defray the government’s cost of dealing with the issue.
There’s really no limit to what you can propose when you cloak it in the precepts of “for the common good.”
...
I also think it would be funny to ask one of these tax proponents what they think of a tax on men and women who engage in promiscuity or other high-risk sexual activities? After all, the same basic logic applies in terms of increased health care costs to the public.
I’d estimate an average delay of 3.7 seconds before they started screaming about it not being any of the government’s business and/or calling me a Nazi. :p
(BTW, I’m obviously not serious about the idea of a tax on people who sleep around. I’m just sayin’ it would be funny to see the hypocritical leftist outrage that would result from such a proposal.)
What is life expectancy in U.S.A. for males? 78? Let's say 78. Anyone who dies after 78 should have "old age" listed on death certificate.
yitbos
Especially the 48% of earners who pay no federal income tax, eh?
Well, that's the way it used to be. The U.S.A. used to have a pretty good indigent care until it was inundated with 10 million illegal diseased aliens.
Those guys caused the bankruptcy of 80% of perfectly good emergency rooms.
Then they went on the dole and bankrupted state and local medical facilities. Now they have bankrupt the federal medical system.
yitbos
First they came for the smokers and I did nothing.......... you know the rest of it.
Since certain “lifestyles” also increase health care costs, how about a tax on those choices? I don’t think that would be as popular with liberals and socialists as taxes on smokers and overweight people.
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