We need to wake up to the reality that solving the obesity crisis (if it is actually something we want to solve—enough healthy people may be happy with paying double for healthcare) may require measures perceived by modern liberals as authoritarian or cruel.
I think this because measures like what we did with tobacco—-public health demonization of junk foods and junk food consumption, banning advertisement of junk food, warning labels on junk food, and high excise taxes on junk food—are unlikely to ever be accepted by the healthy population that has no problem restricting its junk food intake to stay below BMI 30 (60+% of the population). They won’t want to pay double for chips just because obese people can’t stop themselves from eating two bags instead of one.
The only alternative is to charge the obese population on the back end—when they pay for healthcare. Obese people would be made to pay a health insurance surcharge to compensate for the additional healthcare resources they consume. This measure will be decried as “insensitive” and “cruel.”
Alternatively we could do both.
By the way—ozempic et al are unlikely to solve the crisis as some hope. Studies show average long term, sustained weight loss of 10-20 pounds. Good, but not enough to help people who are hundreds of pounds overweight—a sizable portion of the obese population that costs the healthcare system so much.
that's the point. Cheap low quality food makes people wants to eat more (because it lacks nutrition the body needs). Turning them into recurring revenue.
What a stupid take. I've recovered from a type of cancer that has made me put on 15lbs after surgery. By your logic I should pay more for healthcare because I have a disease that I was not responsible for.
I think this because measures like what we did with tobacco—-public health demonization of junk foods and junk food consumption, banning advertisement of junk food, warning labels on junk food, and high excise taxes on junk food—are unlikely to ever be accepted by the healthy population that has no problem restricting its junk food intake to stay below BMI 30 (60+% of the population). They won’t want to pay double for chips just because obese people can’t stop themselves from eating two bags instead of one.
The only alternative is to charge the obese population on the back end—when they pay for healthcare. Obese people would be made to pay a health insurance surcharge to compensate for the additional healthcare resources they consume. This measure will be decried as “insensitive” and “cruel.”
Alternatively we could do both.
By the way—ozempic et al are unlikely to solve the crisis as some hope. Studies show average long term, sustained weight loss of 10-20 pounds. Good, but not enough to help people who are hundreds of pounds overweight—a sizable portion of the obese population that costs the healthcare system so much.