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America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 - The USCHO debates

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Re: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 - The USCHO debates

Handyman said:
What if there is a medical reason for their obesity do they get taxed also for something they cannot control?
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Well, ScottM was clearly being a bit facetious in his original post, but I'll bite. I think his point was that we should slap a (sales) tax on food products that are high in fat and sugar, not that we should slap a higher income tax rates on fat people.

Shifting gears back to insurance premiums (as opposed to taxes), I DO think companies should be allowed to charge more for overweight people. People have many different predispositions that make them more susceptible to diseases, and companies are allowed to charge more for those risk factors (or even outright refuse to write policies). Obesity should be treated like any other risk factor.
 
Re: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 - The USCHO debates

LynahFan said:
Well, ScottM was clearly being a bit facetious in his original post, but I'll bite. I think his point was that we should slap a (sales) tax on food products that are high in fat and sugar, not that we should slap a higher income tax rates on fat people.

Shifting gears back to insurance premiums (as opposed to taxes), I DO think companies should be allowed to charge more for overweight people. People have many different predispositions that make them more susceptible to diseases, and companies are allowed to charge more for those risk factors (or even outright refuse to write policies). Obesity should be treated like any other risk factor.
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Taxing that stuff won't work cause the government will just use that money for something else. You'd figure the Feds would be more sophisticated than that, but no they just stick all the money in one big pot and draw from it.
 
Re: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 - The USCHO debates

ScoobyDoo said:
Taxing that stuff won't work cause the government will just use that money for something else. You'd figure the Feds would be more sophisticated than that, but no they just stick all the money in one big pot and draw from it.
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Well, I wasn't thinking that it was a deficit reduction measure - more as a stick to change people's behavior to improve their health.
 
Re: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 - The USCHO debates

LynahFan said:
Well, ScottM was clearly being a bit facetious in his original post, but I'll bite. I think his point was that we should slap a (sales) tax on food products that are high in fat and sugar, not that we should slap a higher income tax rates on fat people.
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I wasn't being too facetious. I see additional taxes on fats, sugars, tobacco, alcohol, etc. as use taxes and would not necessarily object to them if they were used to fund healthcare. Taxing someone on their weight and/or other health-based criteria would probably draw alot of objections from the people who are most likely to burden the system at some point because of these health issues. However, even where I work, it annoys me, to put it mildly, to see a lot of overweight, unhealthy people paying the same premiums I do. Of course, we also offer subsidized memberships to a variety of health clubs, which I take advantage of.
 
Re: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 - The USCHO debates

walrus said:
How did Safeways insurance premiums go down while everyone else saw a rise? There most of been some benefit from their behavior
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I worked for Safeway from 2003 to 2007, and I am very sceptical about the truthiness of these numbers. I forget the exact details of the plans they offered, but up until 2006 they were pretty traditional (and very good) plans. In 2006 they offered a new plan that did something more like a dental plan, where your annual "maintenance" was covered but additional items were payed for in full rather than just an office visit co-pay. To help pay for this each year you got a debit card with say $500, then the patient was responsible for the next $500 then it went to a co-insurance situation. I think they ditched the traditional plan completely in 2007. So comparing their costs from 2005 to now is pretty much apples to oranges since they aren't offering the same coverage.
 
Re: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 - The USCHO debates

jerphisch said:
I worked for Safeway from 2003 to 2007, and I am very sceptical about the truthiness of these numbers. I forget the exact details of the plans they offered, but up until 2006 they were pretty traditional (and very good) plans. In 2006 they offered a new plan that did something more like a dental plan, where your annual "maintenance" was covered but additional items were payed for in full rather than just an office visit co-pay. To help pay for this each year you got a debit card with say $500, then the patient was responsible for the next $500 then it went to a co-insurance situation. I think they ditched the traditional plan completely in 2007. So comparing their costs from 2005 to now is pretty much apples to oranges since they aren't offering the same coverage.
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Maybe thats how they got such good looking numbers?
 
Re: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 - The USCHO debates

Rover said:
Also, looks like the public's with the President on this one:

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1913426,00.html
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Well, 46% of them, anyway: "Americans were split evenly, 46% to 46%, when asked if they approved or disapproved of Obama's handling of health care."

Oh, but the 46% who like what Obama's doing are Democrats, so their opinion carries 3x the weight in Rover's mind... :rolleyes:
 
Re: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 - The USCHO debates

LynahFan said:
Well, 46% of them, anyway: "Americans were split evenly, 46% to 46%, when asked if they approved or disapproved of Obama's handling of health care."

Oh, but the 46% who like what Obama's doing are Democrats, so their opinion carries 3x the weight in Rover's mind... :rolleyes:
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I find it fascinating that you're calling me partisan, when right before the sentence that you've posted, this is written:

"Obama also retains significantly more credibility with the public than with his Republican foes when it comes to tackling the problem. Asked who they trust to develop new health-care legislation, 47% of respondents said Obama, compared with 32% who said Republicans in Congress".

Now I posted the whole article, not snippets of it, but hey - when it comes down to who do you trust, Obama or the knuckledraggers, its not even a contest. :D
 
Re: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 - The USCHO debates

Rover said:
Now I posted the whole article, not snippets of it, but hey - when it comes down to who do you trust, Obama or the knuckledraggers, its not even a contest. :D
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But your 1-sentence summary of the article was "the public's with the President," not that he only has a plurality of support from the public and darn near half of them disapprove of the way he's handling health care.

If I didn't know better, I'd almost think you were deliberately trying to spin the article to mislead people who didn't read it for themselves... Nahhh - couldn't be...
 
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Re: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 - The USCHO debates

LynahFan said:
But your 1-sentence summary of the article was "the public's with the President," not that he only has a plurality of support from the public and darn near half of them disapprove of the way he's handling health care.

If I didn't know better, I'd almost think you were deliberately trying to spin the article to mislead people who didn't read it for themselves... Nahhh - couldn't be...
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Then.....why would I post the entire article? That makes about as much sense as Sen DeMint's health care plan.
 
Re: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 - The USCHO debates

LynahFan said:
But your 1-sentence summary of the article was "the public's with the President," not that he only has a plurality of support from the public and darn near half of them disapprove of the way he's handling health care.

If I didn't know better, I'd almost think you were deliberately trying to spin the article to mislead people who didn't read it for themselves... Nahhh - couldn't be...
Click to expand...

Please don't quote Rover...I have him on ignore and would appreciate not having to read his posts. Thanks in advance :)
 
Re: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 - The USCHO debates

Rover said:
I find it fascinating that you're calling me partisan, when right before the sentence that you've posted, this is written:

"Obama also retains significantly more credibility with the public than with his Republican foes when it comes to tackling the problem. Asked who they trust to develop new health-care legislation, 47% of respondents said Obama, compared with 32% who said Republicans in Congress".

Now I posted the whole article, not snippets of it, but hey - when it comes down to who do you trust, Obama or the knuckledraggers, its not even a contest. :D
Click to expand...

I really have nothing to add here but I thought Handyman might enjoy reading this.

:p
 
Re: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 - The USCHO debates

NBC news latest polls had 46% disapproved of Obamas health care plan, only 41% approved. Obama overall approval was down to 53%, congress was at 24%, I'd like to slap those 24%:D
 
Re: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 - The USCHO debates

walrus said:
NBC news latest polls had 46% disapproved of Obamas health care plan, only 41% approved. Obama overall approval was down to 53%, congress was at 24%, I'd like to slap those 24%:D
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Hmmmm. Congress' favorables were below those of Dick Cheney, who was around 15%. So you're saying Congress' numbers have almost doubled?
 
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