“Your freedom is likely to be someone else’s harm”
“When you ban smoking in public places, you’re protecting everyone’s health, including and especially the nonsmoker,” said S. Jay Olshansky, a professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago’s School of Public Health.
It can be harder to make the same argument about soda-size restrictions or other legislative attempts to discourage excessive calorie consumption, Olshansky added.
“When you eat yourself to death, you’re pretty much just harming yourself,” he said.
But that viewpoint doesn’t factor in the burden to everyone else of paying for the diabetes care, heart surgeries and other medical expenses incurred by obese people, noted John Cawley, a health economist at Cornell University.
“If I’m obese, the health care costs are not totally borne by me. They’re borne by other people in my health insurance plan and – when I’m older – by Medicare,” Cawley said.
Blowback
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I demand the President establish some panels to deal with this./
Drained Brain on January 27, 2013 at 2:33 PM
LOL …I am lost for words. Who did not see this coming? First the came for the smokers and no one said anything… now you open the door… enjoy your grass salad 10 years from now fools.
watertown on January 27, 2013 at 2:34 PM
First paragraph.
Sarah Palin: “SITYS.”
INC on January 27, 2013 at 2:36 PM
And liberals said we were crazy when we foretold the government dictating what you can eat, who you can sleep with and what you must do in terms of physical activity.
All of those things contribute to health costs, and all are now borne by the collective.
Washington Nearsider on January 27, 2013 at 2:37 PM
John Nolte had terrific commentary on this:
INC on January 27, 2013 at 2:38 PM
What about sloth lifestyles? Sloths live at the expense of other’s labour.
So that pretty much wipes out the dog eater’s core constituency.
tom daschle concerned on January 27, 2013 at 2:40 PM
I’m waiting for the media and the Left to start talking about the high cost of drugs and treatment for AIDS and STDs.
INC on January 27, 2013 at 2:41 PM
And if you don’t have health insurance you get penalized.
Flange on January 27, 2013 at 2:42 PM
Like, say, $3000 of birth control?
mudskipper on January 27, 2013 at 2:43 PM
And, Now, For A Word About Abortion From…Johnny Rotten & Sid Vicious of The Sex Pistols
Resist We Much on January 27, 2013 at 2:45 PM
If the government didn’t pay for health care then it wouldn’t be concerned how people live. Eventually the government will want to control what you buy for food. It will control you completely.
Get the government out of people’s lives.
darwin on January 27, 2013 at 2:46 PM
Just like folks who don’t have a cellphone to call an ambulance?
Shy Guy on January 27, 2013 at 2:46 PM
People who spend millions of taxpayer dollars of unnecessary vacations are a drain on the body politic.
They must be cut free from the money IV.
profitsbeard on January 27, 2013 at 2:48 PM
More like, they’re forcing people into a system and then using the weaknesses of that system to justify dictating behavior.
Flange on January 27, 2013 at 2:52 PM
They said we were alarmists when we warned that Seat Belt laws would become a primary violation too.
And yet the catch phrase today?
Click it or ticket.
The one common thing about Right Wing Extremists is that years later they tend to be vindicated in their extremist views.
jaydee_007 on January 27, 2013 at 2:52 PM
FloatingRock on January 27, 2013 at 2:54 PM
Liberalism is a thin facade for fascism…
d1carter on January 27, 2013 at 2:55 PM
But only after it’s too late. Much too late.
Washington Nearsider on January 27, 2013 at 2:55 PM
Yes and no. I am fascinated by small women in large vehicles. I see them peering skyward over their dash. They need booster seats and professional training at the very least.
Be advised – there won’t be any regulations passed to ensure that midget women use booster seats or learn how to handle 5500lb trucks. That would be racist.
CorporatePiggy on January 27, 2013 at 2:59 PM
Thanks. I initially misunderstood you.
Shy Guy on January 27, 2013 at 3:00 PM
It’s nice of him to think it’s his money once it goes into an insurance pool, irrespective of who costs the pool more. Here’s a tip Crowley, if you think you can pay for your care yourself, by all means quit buying insurance policies.
BTW, Crowley, you don’t pay for your insurance, the students who go to your school do. Maybe they don’t like you using their money to pay for your high-priced policies and using up their limited resources.
Dusty on January 27, 2013 at 3:01 PM
Total lie. Black is white, good is evil, slavery is freedom.
If we actually had the freedom to eat, smoke, etc as we see fit, then we would also have the responsibility to burden our own costs for our excesses. Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. When responsibility is removed, you no longer have freedom, but license. And the entity that took upon itself to divorce the two virtues will be the one controlling the “licenses.”
Ace ODale on January 27, 2013 at 3:02 PM
Why do you use the word “bodega” in this presentation. This is The United States. Nobody but snot nosed libruls and some hispanics use that word. They aren’t in any majority yet – not even a plurality. Mike Stobbe, the author, needs to either become an American, or go to Mexice, his secret eden.
Old Country Boy on January 27, 2013 at 3:08 PM
Yup. Like all else that Socialists do, they wear the good to hide their evil. In one breath they’ll demand “What would Jesus do?” in setting social policy and in the next, decry the religious establishment in setting social policy. It’s all a game of the end justifies the means.
Dusty on January 27, 2013 at 3:09 PM
Hey, guess what? In a totally socialized medical system, dying before your productive years are through is the best thing you can do for the health of the state.
Once you retire and begin to collect, you’re a total drain. And then you start to need new knees and hips, help with transportation. Little strokes and heart attacks to deal with. An increasing number of daily medications. And — hoo boy! — if you live long enough to get the really expensive diseases like Alzheimers, you can bleed the state white.
Do the state a favor. Smoke, drink, pay taxes, die before you retire.
S. Weasel on January 27, 2013 at 3:10 PM
“If I’m obese, the health care costs are not totally borne by me. They’re borne by other people in my health insurance plan and – when I’m older – by Medicare,” Cawley said.”
He makes it sound like everyone who is obese is a drain on the system, or will be. First, obese people die earlier, or so we’re told (that’s why you never see overweight people in nursing homes, or so I hear). And, I find it hard to believe that an obese person who has a heart attack and dies at 60 is a bigger drain on the system than someone of “normal” weight who dies at 90 after 25 years on social security, Medicare, nursing home expenses and most likely some other catastrophic illness (i.e., cancer). Someone should do some research on this…
sydneyjane on January 27, 2013 at 3:24 PM
Well as bho said, take a pill and be done with it! No need for insurance or being a drag on the family or dear big bro!
L
letget on January 27, 2013 at 3:32 PM
Sounds like a reason to let insurance companies charge you more if you are obese. Of course, that is exactly the kind of thing that lefties have already outlawed.
Count to 10 on January 27, 2013 at 3:33 PM
They don’t even realize that they are making the perfect argument against socialized health insurance.
Mord on January 27, 2013 at 3:39 PM
Most people are fat because they are lazy.
They are lazy because they don’t see a need to make any effort. Left wing crazy government just feeds (pun intended) into this.
Moesart on January 27, 2013 at 3:41 PM
SWalker on January 27, 2013 at 3:44 PM
Inverted Totalitarianism? Democracy Is On The Brink Of A Sea Change
M2RB: Jesus Jones
Resist We Much on January 27, 2013 at 3:44 PM
Actually they are making another argument for governmental control .
CW on January 27, 2013 at 3:45 PM
And that’s because the government won’t allow people to buy the coverage they want and need. Mandates force people into pools they wont use but have to pay for. So, a 55 year old woman has to pay for obstetric care and a 25 year old man must buy coverage for gynecological exams. Federal and state mandates force you to buy coverage for everything from chiropractors to mid-wives. Forty years ago there were almost no mandates on health coverage, today there are hundreds, if not thousands. That drives up the cost of both insurance and medical care.
And then when you’re older, you’re forced into the mother of all expensive, inefficient and broken systems: Medicare
So once again, government creates a problem that steals our money and freedom, and then we’re offered a solution that takes even more of our money and freedom.
RadClown on January 27, 2013 at 3:58 PM
Eating their own?
CW on January 27, 2013 at 4:00 PM
“
no, actually, they way insurance used to work when it was structured fairly and properly aka how insurance of most kinds used to work based on risk- was to charge YOU more for insurance because YOU would be more likely to have to use more health care services…
but Dear Leader has done away with all that in order to redistribute the ‘wealth’ of the middle class. “health insurance”/”health care”/obamacare-romneycare-roberts’s tax/wealth redistribution- really ,What Difference Does It Make? it’s all the same Marxist crap meant to FAIL by design.
mittens on January 27, 2013 at 4:07 PM
Irrelevant.
Smoking in public, driving a car on the public roads, many things are privileges, not Rights.
Bearing arms…that’s a Right, recognized, not granted, by the Second Amendment.
What he should be pushing for is “gun education” as we in the NRA have been doing it for decades.
But no….there’s an agenda present…
ProfShadow on January 27, 2013 at 4:14 PM
And when I hear these tools say this, I reply: “This is a failure of Socialism”….Which they never seem to understand.
BierManVA on January 27, 2013 at 4:16 PM
Liberals — doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past because they think they can do “it right this time.”
Repeating the same thing over and over…we know…sign of insanity….that’s why they don’t want to address the mental health issue. They know deep in their hearts that they should be locked up in an asylum somewhere.
ProfShadow on January 27, 2013 at 4:27 PM
Death Panels.
unseen on January 27, 2013 at 4:34 PM
Da. For the Good of the Many, Comrade!
Forward!
thirtyandseven on January 27, 2013 at 4:35 PM
Im still waiting for the lower car insurance premiums they said we would get with the seat belt laws.
unseen on January 27, 2013 at 4:36 PM
How was that even supposed to be possible? The least auto insurance you have to have in any state is liability. And even then, it only covers property damage, not loss of life or limb. *EyeRoll*
gryphon202 on January 27, 2013 at 5:09 PM
Bmore on January 27, 2013 at 5:47 PM
All those things will be closely monitored in the re-education camps.
davidk on January 27, 2013 at 6:24 PM
Which is why the federal government shouldn’t be involved in such a thing. I would paste quotes from Davy Crockett and Adams about charity and the government, but y’all can look ‘em up.
Actually, that was done away with before Obamacare. It’s just the last nail in the coffin lid.
Uh, no. Liability actually covers all costs that other drivers incur when you cause them harm, including medical. Of course, government interference has even made that work incorrectly, but that is what liability insurance is. Collision and comprehensive cover you (and can include medical), liability covers others.
GWB on January 27, 2013 at 6:35 PM