Governments that fatten themselves on overburdened taxpayers and increased entitlement programs spend too much on health care, a study funded by the CDC recently found. Okay, so that's not exactly what the study said, but it doesn't take a genius to read between the lines.
The findings, released by RTI International, actually showed that health care costs increased for a person as weight increased, to the tune of nearly $1500 more in medical bills per year. That, of course, translates into more prescription drugs and higher insurance premiums for overweight Americans. So you can only imagine what adding these fatties to a government health plan will do.
While I don't know if obesity is a pre-existing condition, I imagine that in the case of someone too large to even leave their house, a private insurance company might balk at covering them. But if health care reform passes as currently proposed under Doc Barack and Nurse Nancy, no insurance company will be allowed to refuse anyone. Not only that, the insurer will be limited to what they can charge the riskier patient based on the average payer's premium.
So if you're young, fit, and healthy - guess what? Your health insurance is going up! You are going to be penalized to make up for the increased costs of insuring the unhealthy and obese. Might as well start smoking now. How's that hopey-dopey change working out for you, kiddos?
Of course, if the state controls your health, maybe the government won't let you get fat. The obesity police could come knocking at your door with tape measures or send you a warning letter if the school thinks your child is getting too pudgy. They could regulate your diet, enroll you in re-education seminars, or raise taxes on fast food, sodas, and fatty snacks. Given the ballooning deficit, the plan's projected cost, and the trend to tax cigarettes, you know that's where we're headed.
Think it all sounds too farfetched? Ask a banker or businessman who took TARP funds. Just like money from a loan shark in the Sopranos, these government goodies come with strings attached.
You don't shrink the size of government by increasing the size of government. The fact I even have to write that sentence is a testimony to how bad the mainstream media is covering this fiasco. Yet that's what President Obama and the Democrats are asking us to believe with health care. Cover everybody, cover them without assessing risks, cover them without charging more than healthy individuals are charged, and somehow it's going to lower costs and boost the economy!
Kind of like the stimulus was going to create all those jobs and keep unemployment below eight percent. Whoops. Your credibility is flatlining, Mr. President.
Graph courtesy of Keith Hennessey via Ed Morrissey.
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