Government-Run Health Care & Your Right To Be Chubby
April 29, 2009 / 12:58 pm • By Dr. Melissa ClouthierHow fat is too fat? Don’t worry, the government will soon have an answer to that question and your health care will be determined by that answer. From TheHill:
Health reform radicals howl when it’s pointed out that the board’s true mission is to determine which treatments are “cost-effective,” claiming that language in the law prohibits them from making specific recommendations based on cost. But that’s just smoke and mirrors designed to distract Americans from the truth: the board controls a $1.1 billion budget and will recommend how to direct future research dollars. Clearly, cost-effectiveness is the primary metric the board will measure.
The legal language creating this ominous national board was buried in the stimulus package details that — we now know — nobody read. Four hundred million dollars went to the Department of Health and Human Services, another $400 million to the National Institutes of Health, and finally $300 million more to yet another nest of bureaucrats you’ve never heard of called the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. In all, $1.1 billion has been budgeted for “comparative effectiveness research.”
An interesting stand-off will be forced should government-run health care be pushed through by the ever stronger Democrat party: People schooled in “anything goes” and defined by civil rights, will be in the position of having to submit to the government telling them what they can do regarding their most personal habits. Already, these folks are angry. Already, people don’t want this. A new civil rights group decries discrimination and have already suffered at the hands of doctors:
There are no U.S. laws prohibiting weight discrimination, and only one state, Michigan, has an anti-weight bias law. Legislatures in Massachusetts and Nevada have taken up size-bias bills, but similar efforts have failed in recent years.
Weight discrimination is pervasive, said Rebecca Puhl, director of research at Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.
An “obesity wage penalty” — larger employees getting paid less regardless of job performance — is widespread, and research shows overweight people are less likely to land a job or be promoted than a non-obese worker, she said.
“We do need to fight obesity, but not obese people,” said Puhl. “Individuals … who are discriminated against because of their weight are more likely to engage in unhealthy eating behaviors and avoidance of physical activity.”
Anecdotal evidence also suggests overweight people avoid trips to the doctor out of fear of being mocked.
According to NAAFA, about 70 percent of overweight and obese women have experienced bias from doctors. Others complain of being turned down by health-insurance companies.
Doctors are frustrated by patients complaining of wholly preventable health problems. Patients feel embarrassed and judged by their doctors so don’t get the health care they need.
Government run health care will increase the tension in the doctor-patient relationship–when the patient ever gets to see the doctor.
Cross-posted at RightWingNews
3 Responses to “Government-Run Health Care & Your Right To Be Chubby”
April 30 2009 / 7:10 am
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Nanny state, here we come!
This is where the modern definition of “civil rights” bumps up against individual liberty. The two are completely different. The gov’t is meant to protect your individual rights as defined in the Constitution, not create a nanny state to protect people from themselves.
As for government-run health care…that will be an atrocity if it’s ever pushed through by the Dems…
April 30 2009 / 7:45 am
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This is something I have been saying for as long as national health care has been discussed. Once the government becomes responsible for paying your helath-care bills, they will have the right to tell you how to behave. They will tell you what you can and cannot eat and what activities you cannot pursue. Of course, this will all be done in your interests, so you won’t think it’s too bad. That is, unless you have a brain.
April 30 2009 / 9:07 am
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Even though I am a libertarian who pretty staunchly believes most all of our health care issues could be solved with more competition and free(r), less regulated markets, I do have to say that I feel what is written here is just mainly unwarranted fear-mongering.
Yes, there are all sorts of concerns, when it comes to government-managed health care. There are privacy issues. There are tax issues. There are wait period issues. Conspiracy theories about the government telling you how to eat and what to weigh tends not to be one of them, though.
How do I come to that conclusion? Well, look at all the other developed nations that have universal health care. They have a plethora of problems themselves (different to our own), but most certainly none of them is that the government is making them eat extra carrots and peas at the dinner table, to fight obesity or take away someone’s right to be a lard butt.
My point isn’t to rag on the writing here too much, particularly since much of it is just pasted from other sources, but to say you can argue against public health care for many good, logical reasons that have ample statistical and historical data to support them. Talking about the government infringing upon the “right to be chubby” probably isn’t one of those well-documented reasons.
On a side note, there is a contradiction here. To believe in highly privatized and libertarian rights of “anything goes,” you must also believe that a lot of, for example, employers have a right to discriminate against obese individuals, as obesity is often something that can be managed and slowly but surely reversed. For most, it is not an ailment we are born with, even in those who are with some unlucky genes. Wanting the government to protect the rights of the obese is asking for a type of affirmative action, I’m afraid.
I’ll be honest here. If there’s any manual labor involved in a job I’m hiring for, I’m probably going to choose the fitter candidate for the job; or, if I have two workers, one who is fit and the other who is not, I may consider paying more to the (likely) more productive, fitter one. It’s a hard pill for obese individuals to swallow, but there is a reason some of this discrimination exists, and it’s based on logic, not malice.
I just thought that was worth mentioning, because I find it highly ironic that anyone could want the government to stay out of health-related affairs, yet want “anti-weight bias laws.” Don’t think we can really have the cake and eat it too–no puns intended, not really…