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Overweight people should pay 'fat tax' to cover healthcare costs, German MP says

jamesrage

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I guess this is one of the consequences of a socialized medicine system.

Overweight people should pay 'fat tax' to cover healthcare costs, German MP says - Telegraph

"The question must be admitted whether the immense costs that, for example, arise from excessive consumption of food, can be permanently paid out of the consolidated health system," said Marco Wanderwitz, the conservative MP for the state of Saxony.

"I think it's sensible that people who knowingly live unhealthily carry a responsibility for it in a financial respect," said Mr Wanderwitz, who is also head of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats's group of young parliamentarians

He was supported by Juergen Wasem, an economist who said foods like chocolate should carry health warnings.

"As with tobacco, we should tax the purchase of unhealthy consumer goods at a higher rate and pay that tax into the health system," he said.

Germany's health system is funded by a series of mandatory health insurance funds, all of which are reporting serious deficits as the system is overused.
 
You would guess wrongly.

"The system is decentralized with private practice physicians providing ambulatory care, and independent, mostly non-profit hospitals providing the majority of inpatient care. Approximately 92% of the population is covered by a 'Statutory Health Insurance' plan, which provides a standardized level of coverage through any one of approximately 1100 public or private sickness funds. Standard insurance is funded by a combination of employee contributions, employer contributions and government subsidies on a scale determined by income level"

Universal health care - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
I guess this is one of the consequences of a socialized medicine system.

Overweight people should pay 'fat tax' to cover healthcare costs, German MP says - Telegraph

"The question must be admitted whether the immense costs that, for example, arise from excessive consumption of food, can be permanently paid out of the consolidated health system," said Marco Wanderwitz, the conservative MP for the state of Saxony.

"I think it's sensible that people who knowingly live unhealthily carry a responsibility for it in a financial respect," said Mr Wanderwitz, who is also head of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats's group of young parliamentarians

He was supported by Juergen Wasem, an economist who said foods like chocolate should carry health warnings.

"As with tobacco, we should tax the purchase of unhealthy consumer goods at a higher rate and pay that tax into the health system," he said.

Germany's health system is funded by a series of mandatory health insurance funds, all of which are reporting serious deficits as the system is overused.

Although opposition politicians blasted the "fat-tax" proposal, researchers at the Jacobs University in Bremen claimed its work proved that the majority of the public would back a tax on people whose unhealthy lifestyles landed them in hospital or under other medical care.

This is the last part of your article you just accidently left out.
 
Here's an idea:

If each individual in Germany was resposible for his own health care, the German government wouldn't be forced to compromise people's freedom by taxing fat.

Of course, government's LOVE any excuse to create new taxes.

Which is why the United States should repeal Messiah-Care as soon as possible.
 
Here's an idea:

If each individual in Germany was resposible for his own health care, the German government wouldn't be forced to compromise people's freedom by taxing fat.

Of course, government's LOVE any excuse to create new taxes.



Which is why the United States should repeal Messiah-Care as soon as possible.

I agree. It worries me that all of a sudden we are talking about BMI being required in our medical records and school records. The first ladies crusade to fight childhood obesity. Talk of taxing junk food etc.
I saw a factory on tv that was in Japan. A person was walking around measuring peoples waists. (they all looked skinny) They said if the people were too fat they would get a warning and if they didn't lose, they would have to go to nutritional counciling.
Are we headed there?
 
Should people with terrible negligent driving records pay more for car insurance?

Should people who have neglected their bodies pay more for health insurance?
 
Should people with terrible negligent driving records pay more for car insurance?

Should people who have neglected their bodies pay more for health insurance?

The funny thing is that it's the healthy people that end up using more health care money than fat people. Link Using that logic then healthy people should be paying more.
 
Fat people put a burden on the health care industry. Germans are smart, that's why most of them support the law, and why their government is willing to put it in to practice. Americans are fat and usually stupid.
 
Fat people put a burden on the health care industry. Germans are smart, that's why most of them support the law, and why their government is willing to put it in to practice. Americans are fat and usually stupid.

Proof that fat people put a burden on the health care industry?
 
The funny thing is that it's the healthy people that end up using more health care money than fat people. Link Using that logic then healthy people should be paying more.

Thing is, we wouldn't be having this discussion if the government wasn't taking over every aspect of our lives.
Already meddling into our weight and diet because they will be paying for it.
Soon, they will be telling our kids and grandkids what they are going to be when they grow up. (doctors,nurses, probably) They'll be paying for the education so they will have every right to. I think that was the main purpose for taking over student loans.
 
Thing is, we wouldn't be having this discussion if the government wasn't taking over every aspect of our lives.
Already meddling into our weight and diet because they will be paying for it.
Soon, they will be telling our kids and grandkids what they are going to be when they grow up. (doctors,nurses, probably) They'll be paying for the education so they will have every right to. I think that was the main purpose for taking over student loans.

I saw an interesting documentary called King Korn. Two guys rent an acre of land in Iowa to raise a crop of corn. They procede to go through and detail the history of the current corn industry and they were surprised to find that at Iowa State University that their hair sample contained 90% corn in it. There is not a prepared food product out there on the market that does not contain high fructose corn syrup because the government in the 70's mandated that farmers should just grow corn and soybeans regardless of the market conditions. Another documentary I watched, I can't recall the name off-hand, showed the history of sugar eating in the US. Prior to the 1900's, people ate just two teaspoons of sugar a day, but now they're up to roughly a cup of sugar a day or more. The reason being is high fructose corn syrup in everything. People wonder why we're getting fat and it's because of the government mandating that farmers grow corn regardless of what the market says combined with the tariffs on natural sugar that most food manufacturers have switched to high fructose corn syrup since it was cheaper.
 
Fat people have lots of health issues and thus they take more government services. The tax is obsolete in the United States because individuals pay for their insurance. The tax is logically sound in a country with a universal healthcare.
 
Fat people have lots of health issues and thus they take more government services. The tax is obsolete in the United States because individuals pay for their insurance. The tax is logically sound in a country with a universal healthcare.

I see just empty rhetoric with no proof to back it up. I posted up a report of a study that shows that healthy people use more health care then obese people.
 
I saw an interesting documentary called King Korn. Two guys rent an acre of land in Iowa to raise a crop of corn. They procede to go through and detail the history of the current corn industry and they were surprised to find that at Iowa State University that their hair sample contained 90% corn in it. There is not a prepared food product out there on the market that does not contain high fructose corn syrup because the government in the 70's mandated that farmers should just grow corn and soybeans regardless of the market conditions. Another documentary I watched, I can't recall the name off-hand, showed the history of sugar eating in the US. Prior to the 1900's, people ate just two teaspoons of sugar a day, but now they're up to roughly a cup of sugar a day or more. The reason being is high fructose corn syrup in everything. People wonder why we're getting fat and it's because of the government mandating that farmers grow corn regardless of what the market says combined with the tariffs on natural sugar that most food manufacturers have switched to high fructose corn syrup since it was cheaper.

You can make excuses for America being fat but the fact is that most of them have horrible diets and little to no exercise.
 
You can make excuses for America being fat but the fact is that most of them have horrible diets and little to no exercise.

Thank you for agreeing with me since that is exactly what I said. Why are you such a bigot against Americans?
 
Thank you for agreeing with me since that is exactly what I said. Why are you such a bigot against Americans?

Where in your post did you talk about little to no exercise or an awful diet? All you said was that there's more high fructose corn syrup?
 
Where in your post did you talk about little to no exercise or an awful diet? All you said was that there's more high fructose corn syrup?

Try reading post #7 in this thread.
 
Try reading post #7 in this thread.

Post #7:

The funny thing is that it's the healthy people that end up using more health care money than fat people. Link Using that logic then healthy people should be paying more.

Where in your post did you talk about little to no exercise or an awful diet? All you said was that there's more high fructose corn syrup?
 
Post #7:



Where in your post did you talk about little to no exercise or an awful diet? All you said was that there's more high fructose corn syrup?

I never disputed your exercise statement. I asked why you were a bigot against Americans since many western countries have a problem with obesity. It's not just a problem in America.
 
So your argument is that fat people die faster than healthy people and thus healthy people are a bigger burden on the the healthcare industry?
 
So your argument is that fat people die faster than healthy people and thus healthy people are a bigger burden on the the healthcare industry?

Pretty much and the study I posted shows this to be the case.
 
Obese people get sick and go to the hospital because they are fat. Healthy people get sick and go to the hospital because disease is a natural occuring phenomena, even in healthy human beings. Obese people can lose weight and change their lifestyle, healthy people cannot do anything.
 
Obese people get sick and go to the hospital because they are fat. Healthy people get sick and go to the hospital because disease is a natural occuring phenomena, even in healthy human beings. Obese people can lose weight and change their lifestyle, healthy people cannot do anything.

Obese people die younger then healthy people. Since they die younger, they use less health care then a healthy person over the course of their life. Just because someone is obese doesn't mean they're not healthy. My ex-wife is overweight, but she's at the peak of health. She always gets good feedback from her doctor.
 
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