Comments on: Let's just blame the fat people

By: mcosita

mcosita — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:22:49 +0000

I agree. The title was in extremely poor taste. Well, along with the rest of the article, but at least it was more tactful. Assigning "blame" to what amounts to a 3% difference in cost of care seems....... unnecessary, and certainly the "simple explanation"/easy way out for such a complex problem as health care costs. This is a pretty awful jump in logic. And yeah - I bet the doctor sees a lot of that kind of thing, BECAUSE SHE'S A DOCTOR, and it's her job to see people with problems. Lots of fat people eat responsibly, raise their children responsibly, etc.

By: leolutero

leolutero — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 04:31:35 +0000

I hate your title. "Blaming"!?!

warpedopinion.wordpress.com

By: Barack Obama’s “Fat” Choice For Surgeon General, Regina Benjamin | Hiptics

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 17:17:57 +0000

[...] her Surgeon General. After all, obesity in America is a serious problem in America that results in higher healthcare costs and global warming so what kind of a message does Benjamin’s presence [...]

By: Mean Street: No Healthcare Reform? It’s Your Own Fault, America - Deal Journal - WSJ

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:23:18 +0000

[...] have a nation in which 27% of us are obese. The airlines have a tough enough time charging an extra carrying penalty for our most rotund [...]

By: Top Posts « WordPress.com

Top Posts « WordPress.com — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:20:10 +0000

[...] Let’s just blame the fat people I was among friends the other night, listening to a doctor go off about how health care in this country costs so much [...] [...]

By: livefitezine

livefitezine — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:47:37 +0000

I had a similar theme this week. http://snipurl.com/miy83 [livefitezine_wordpress_com] It's amazing to think that so many Americans spend all that time and money being obese - and don't get off the couch.

By: Barbara Kiviat

Barbara Kiviat — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:24:08 +0000

Oh, I don't think the *only* reason health care costs a lot is because of obesity. I get that there are many screwed up parts of the system. Here's another example: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/business/01meddebt.html. Good point about the corn lobby; that was the topic of conversation a different night.

@tomlind: The research note is pretty slim (technically, it's only a "statistical brief"). The methodology is to look at health care expenditures for each group of people during two discrete years—2001 and 2006. So, no, it doesn't take your point into account, through it is an interesting one.

By: baconmustache

baconmustache — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:26:59 +0000

I'm fat and live in a deep shell of emotional self loathing every day. Maybe its the mustache, maybe the bacon, either way -- I'm just gross.

By: tomlind

tomlind — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:33:03 +0000

A morbid question but I'll ask it anyway. Do you have any idea if these studies adjust for the earlier death rate of obese patients? Is it akin to smoking where net-net the smoker generally uses fewer health care dollars over their entire life due to decreased life expectancy and death from relatively quickly fatal diseases?

By: tc125231

tc125231 — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:24:39 +0000

All probably true. However, there is a fair amount of evidence that single payer systems (Finland is a notable example) do a much better job of educating and providing incentives to the public tochange behavior than is the case in America.

Number 1: Private insurance companies don't really care hwat public health statistics are --as long as they don't have to pay more than they can profitably charge premiums for.

Number 2: Single payer health care systems have the kind of clout that no one in America has today.

So if you belive these things, you should probably support single payer. Maybe we could begin by getting corn syrup out of everything in sight.