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0 pointsnradov3y ago0 comments

Should we apply the same sort of "stupid X law" to people who drink alcohol or drive motorcycles or play rugby? This is one of the moral hazards of a socialized medical system. When the rest of society is paying for your medical care it becomes tempting to save money be dictating exactly how you're allowed to live your life.

Obesity is a serious public health problem but we won't fix it by calling people stupid or charging them extra.

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7 comments · 2 top-level

notch656a3y ago· 3 in thread

>Should we apply the same sort of "stupid X law" to people who drink alcohol or drive motorcycles or play rugby?

Yes, precisely. Keep chopping down at these factors until all that's practically left is private healthcare -- that's a feature not a bug. It's enough that I have to pay the bill to scrape the blood off the street when a motorcycle is crashed, not interested in paying someone elses motorcycle related health premiums on top of that (I've gotten enough motorcycle injuries while carrying my own private healthcare :) )

>This is one of the moral hazards of a socialized medical system.

As you say with public healthcare the effect (you say temptation) is to socialize your health related losses while privatizing the gains you reap.

pessimizer3y ago

Yes, I'm getting sick of paying for people who drive cars, go to restaurants and concerts, and have children.

> socialize your health related losses while privatizing the gains you reap.

Those famous health care gains.

Dylan168073y ago

I'm not sure how the heck you jumped from "drive motorcycles" to "drive cars".

Driving cars would be minor and apply to almost everyone, so it would mostly cancel out and be negligible. Really it would be a slight discount for taking transit, and that seems... fine to me.

And those other ones aren't even notable risk factors.

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mvc3y ago

Sure. As long as we tighten up on other externalities.

You use a lot of energy? You pay for the damage to the world.

opportune3y ago· 2 in thread

Yes I think that makes sense, to an extent. Maybe not specifically those because they are too hard to measure. But it would be a great way to have people put skin in the game. As a taxpayer paying for others’ healthcare I’d love if they were incentivized to live healthier lives to reduce costs

echelon3y ago

There are people genetically predisposed to gain weight or have heart disease. Cancer can be Russian roulette, as is your immune system picking up random autoimmune disorders. Accidents happen.

There are too many stakeholders with too many backgrounds and conditions for anything like your proposed system to work. Everyone would be angry.

ahtihn3y ago

> There are people genetically predisposed to gain weight

And this genetic mutation somehow happened in the last 50-100 years or so? Obese people have always existed. Obese poor people are fairly new. The root cause is diet, not genetics.

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