3 ms·

I don't think I buy it, do you have some references? There are a lot of nonfatal chronic illneses derived from obesity, alcohol consumption and tobacco. My big

by gordaco 12y ago

I don't think I buy it, do you have some references? There are a lot of nonfatal chronic illneses derived from obesity, alcohol consumption and tobacco. My biggests problem with this point are not related with the veracity of his implied statement, but rather, with the slippery slope of making people pay more because of health problems (that are actually less in their control than we may believe), which is anyway happening already in an indirect way; and also, that it would constitute another form of poverty tax, considering that obesity is often caused by the poor quality food that people with little to no money can afford.

ElectricMonk79 12y ago
http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/healthcare/fatties-and-smokers-save-the-nhs-money/ http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/healthcare/fatties-and-smokers... > Ultimately, the thin and healthy group cost the most, about $417,000, from age 20 on. The cost of care for obese people was $371,000, and for smokers, about $326,000. And as Kip Viscusi has pointed out, when you add in the costs of the state pensions that those who die young don’t get, smoking and gorging save the government vast sums of money.
- gordaco 12y ago
  Thanks. Quite a surprising finding. That article links to another one from the NY times [1], with this interesting line: The researchers found that from age 20 to 56, obese people racked up the most expensive health costs. But because both the smokers and the obese people died sooner than the healthy group, it cost less to treat them in the long run. [1]: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/05iht-obese.1.9748884.html?_r=2 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/05iht-obese.1.97488...
  - flexie 12y ago
    20-56 is the working age. If you wanna do this comparison you should include whether skinny people work more/pay more taxes while the obese are busy being sick. It gets complicated :-)
  - ElectricMonk79 12y ago
    Yes! :) I love to tease the public health nazis with... "On average, fat people are healthier". Funny because it's true.

by gordaco 12y ago

ElectricMonk79 12y ago

http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/healthcare/fatties-and-smokers-save-the-nhs-money/ http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/healthcare/fatties-and-smokers... > Ultimately, the thin and healthy group cost the most, about $417,000, from age 20 on. The cost of care for obese people was $371,000, and for smokers, about $326,000. And as Kip Viscusi has pointed out, when you add in the costs of the state pensions that those who die young don’t get, smoking and gorging save the government vast sums of money.

gordaco 12y ago
Thanks. Quite a surprising finding. That article links to another one from the NY times [1], with this interesting line: The researchers found that from age 20 to 56, obese people racked up the most expensive health costs. But because both the smokers and the obese people died sooner than the healthy group, it cost less to treat them in the long run. [1]: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/05iht-obese.1.9748884.html?_r=2 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/05iht-obese.1.97488...
- flexie 12y ago
  20-56 is the working age. If you wanna do this comparison you should include whether skinny people work more/pay more taxes while the obese are busy being sick. It gets complicated :-)
- ElectricMonk79 12y ago
  Yes! :) I love to tease the public health nazis with... "On average, fat people are healthier". Funny because it's true.