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Overweight people should pay 'fat tax' to cover healthcare costs, German MP says
The Telegraph ^ | 7/22/2010 | Allan Hall in Berlin

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dictatorship; germany; government; health; healthcare; individualrights; obamacare; overweight; socialisthealthcare; socializedmedicine; taxes
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1 posted on 07/22/2010 11:15:43 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
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To: bruinbirdman

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.


2 posted on 07/22/2010 11:17:52 PM PDT by napscoordinator
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To: bruinbirdman

Heroin chic.


3 posted on 07/22/2010 11:19:10 PM PDT by allmost
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To: bruinbirdman

I think german MPs should pay a special tax for being german MPs.


4 posted on 07/22/2010 11:21:24 PM PDT by mamelukesabre (Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
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To: bruinbirdman

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.


5 posted on 07/22/2010 11:22:18 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: bruinbirdman

That woman appears to have two pairs of hips.

I still wouldn’t make her pay a fat tax though.


6 posted on 07/22/2010 11:23:13 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: napscoordinator

She should have a special tax for failure to wear appropriately sized clothing. ...or someone should buy her a full-length mirror.


7 posted on 07/22/2010 11:24:32 PM PDT by MediaMole
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To: bruinbirdman

I think that Obama is headed that direction with US healthcare using the fradulent BMI as the metric.


8 posted on 07/22/2010 11:26:26 PM PDT by gov_bean_ counter (Sarah Palin - For such a time as this...)
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To: MediaMole

How about a moo moo for the moo???


9 posted on 07/22/2010 11:27:49 PM PDT by gov_bean_ counter (Sarah Palin - For such a time as this...)
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To: bruinbirdman

Upinzy yours Fritz.


10 posted on 07/22/2010 11:28:39 PM PDT by BigCinBigD (Northern flags in South winds flutter...)
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To: bruinbirdman
By the BMI formula I have always been overweight, even in the days when I worked with a jackhammer all day and could pick up an engine block and put it on the stand by myself. Some of us just aren't built like junkies.
11 posted on 07/22/2010 11:29:11 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: bruinbirdman

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.


12 posted on 07/22/2010 11:30:16 PM PDT by barmag25
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To: bruinbirdman

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.


13 posted on 07/22/2010 11:30:34 PM PDT by WallStreetCapitalist
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To: bruinbirdman

Nanny state ‘conservative’, rather like Hucklebee, except on this issue, naturally.


14 posted on 07/22/2010 11:30:45 PM PDT by Lucius Cornelius Sulla (Good night. I expect more respect tomorrow - Danny H (RIP))
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To: Smokin' Joe

Bone mass increases, muscle to fat ratio conforms to work.


15 posted on 07/22/2010 11:32:08 PM PDT by allmost
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To: WallStreetCapitalist

One more reason to repeal Obamacare.


16 posted on 07/22/2010 11:32:33 PM PDT by Lucius Cornelius Sulla (Good night. I expect more respect tomorrow - Danny H (RIP))
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To: bruinbirdman

I KNEW IT! 5 years ago, we make fun of the fat tax, now it becomes reality


17 posted on 07/22/2010 11:36:18 PM PDT by 4rcane
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To: bruinbirdman
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.

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!"


"I think it's sensible that people who knowingly live unhealthily carry a responsibility for it in a financial respect," said Mr Wanderwitz

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.

18 posted on 07/22/2010 11:36:30 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Made in America, by proud American citizens, in 1946.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

we laugh at this now, but it becomes a reality in the future. The fat tax used to be a satire, now its reality


19 posted on 07/22/2010 11:37:05 PM PDT by 4rcane
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To: allmost
Bone mass increases, muscle to fat ratio conforms to work.

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).

20 posted on 07/22/2010 11:38:53 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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