Overweight people should pay 'fat tax' to cover healthcare costs, German MP says

The Telegraph ^ | 7/22/2010 | Allan Hall in Berlin

[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 . . .

[DB]

When government controls your healthcare, they eventually control your life.

Its all about control.

“Land of the Free”

No more.

[taxtruth]

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!

[bruinbirdman]

"To argue otherwise is to say that . . . ."

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

[allmost]

Bone density and muscle mass can make you ‘fat’.

[ApplegateRanch]

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....

[skr]

How much would the “clinics” cost compared to just leaving people alone?

[skr]

This woman seriously needs a What-Not-to-Wear wakeup call.

[cherry]

perhaps the same will go for smokers, drinkers,sausage eaters,people who mountain climb, people who don't wear seat belts, people who don't wear condoms,those who eat meat,those who use butter, etc etc...

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....

[Smokin' Joe]

Bone density and muscle mass can make you ‘fat’.

Yep. The way BMI is calcualted, it can, even if you aren't.

[dixiechick2000]

Has anyone considered genetics?

Probably not since that doesn’t nicely fit people into a collective mold.

[cherry]

do the fat people pay taxes?....maybe they would rather not pay for your children in school or the bus transportation system that does not come to their neighborhood....or maybe they would rather not pay for the police and fire to concentrate on the inner city .....all those services are paid by taxes whether you use them or not....

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....

[bruinbirdman]

"How much would the “clinics” cost "

The Obammunist is creating more goobmint yobs.

yitbos

[dixiechick2000]

“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.

[bruinbirdman]

"I'll bet every freeper does something to impinge their health...."

I'll bet there is no instance, on a death certificate, of "smoking" listed as cause of death.

yitbos

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

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.

[musicman]

[Plumberman27]

“Very interesting but stupid”. I take you feel that people that jog should also pay additional taxes since in later life they end up having get their knee joints replaced. And what of the homosexual crowd who feel it is normal to have a mans penis thrust up the anal aperture? Now there is normal behavior. And while you are at it lets tax office workers since they sit on the asses all day and get hardly no activity unless they belong to a gym. Oh but the again there is that jogging tax. Let's tax black people too since they get sickle cell. Come on grow up.

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.

[Plumberman27]

Looks like i should have been dead about 15 years ago and i am healthy as can be.

[thecabal]

I'll speak up as a fat ass.

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.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Why don’t people just pay for their own health insurance?