4 ms·

I wonder if at some point people will start raise the possibility of excluding/restricting access of obese people to socialized/subsidized healthcare unless the

I wonder if at some point people will start raise the possibility of excluding/restricting access of obese people to socialized/subsidized healthcare unless they commit to loosing weight?

nradov 4y ago
Perhaps, but that would require legislative changes to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). https://www.healthcare.gov/how-plans-set-your-premiums https://www.healthcare.gov/how-plans-set-your-premiums
nebula8804 4y ago
Why not structure government programs to help people lose weight? Get rid of corn in everything, subsidize healthy fresh food instead of corn. Have centers in each town teaching people nutrition and proper cooking. Make the incentives align with healthy eating and well being.
PuppyTailWags 4y ago
The medical profession is generally against witholding healthcare from people for sin/moral reasoning. Historically, this has been used to treat black people, gay people, single mothers, poor people, etc. with substandard care and does not lead to population-level good outcomes. Additionally, there is no way to access obese people with the medical processes they may need to lose the weight if the medical field is also systemically depriving them of basic medical care unless they lose weight.
colechristensen 4y ago
That won't happen. They will start to tax obesity foods (and in some places already have). A lot of the reason that industrial food in America has such bad health characteristics is because it's cheaper. Filling things which taste bad because pre-prepaired, frozen, shelf-stable is hard to do with pleasing flavor without taking out most of the water and filling things with sugar, fat, and salt. Making it less affordable will make people make different choices, and scaling up other kinds of foods will make them at least a little cheaper.
- mcguire 4y ago
  ...which immediately turns into a tax on the poor, because if you are working three jobs to get by then you have little choice except the cheaper, more readily available "obesity foods".

I wonder if at some point people will start raise the possibility of excluding/restricting access of obese people to socialized/subsidized healthcare unless they commit to loosing weight?

nradov 4y ago

Perhaps, but that would require legislative changes to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). https://www.healthcare.gov/how-plans-set-your-premiums https://www.healthcare.gov/how-plans-set-your-premiums

nebula8804 4y ago

Why not structure government programs to help people lose weight? Get rid of corn in everything, subsidize healthy fresh food instead of corn. Have centers in each town teaching people nutrition and proper cooking. Make the incentives align with healthy eating and well being.

PuppyTailWags 4y ago

The medical profession is generally against witholding healthcare from people for sin/moral reasoning. Historically, this has been used to treat black people, gay people, single mothers, poor people, etc. with substandard care and does not lead to population-level good outcomes. Additionally, there is no way to access obese people with the medical processes they may need to lose the weight if the medical field is also systemically depriving them of basic medical care unless they lose weight.

colechristensen 4y ago

That won't happen. They will start to tax obesity foods (and in some places already have). A lot of the reason that industrial food in America has such bad health characteristics is because it's cheaper. Filling things which taste bad because pre-prepaired, frozen, shelf-stable is hard to do with pleasing flavor without taking out most of the water and filling things with sugar, fat, and salt. Making it less affordable will make people make different choices, and scaling up other kinds of foods will make them at least a little cheaper.

mcguire 4y ago
...which immediately turns into a tax on the poor, because if you are working three jobs to get by then you have little choice except the cheaper, more readily available "obesity foods".