Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Why should all of us have to pay the same size medicare premiums people smoking their way into lung cancer


Why should all of us have to pay the same size medicare premiums people smoking their way into lung cancer?
Or drunks who ruin their livers? Or obese people who destroy their bodies? For those of us who don't do those things, why shouldn't we demand to pay less, and those who are abusive with their bodies be required to pay more?
Politics - 20 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
because the government owns your body now
2 :
I warn you. Do not attempt to further regulate personal choice. I am owner of my body and if I choose to abuse it I WILL!
3 :
There should be extra tax on alcohol and cigarettes just for that reason. The extra money would go directly to Medicare. The tax would be like an investment for their future.
4 :
For the same reason you are judging people.
5 :
How do you test for this and accurately avoid fraud?
6 :
We shouldn't. -that's what we've been trying to tell you people.
7 :
STFU ill smoke, drink and eat as much as I want.... if you dont like it then I suggest you start doing the same.
8 :
Because you're not perfect either.
9 :
Right... But why do I have to pay for YOUR psychiatric treatment?
10 :
Because you voted for Obama...
11 :
Sounds fair...as long as you take this line of reasoning all the way. Male homosexuals should be charged more as well, as their lifestyle leads to exponentially higher rates of HIV and Hepatitis C infections than those suffered by heterosexuals and lesbians. PC or not, it's a fact. We can't single out this unhealthy act or that unhealthy act for higher premiums if we're not going to look at EVERYTHING through the same prism.
12 :
Sid you have so much to learn, I hope you live long enough to have learned enough not to continue making statements that show how little you really know.
13 :
um that is how "private" insurance is run.....and Obama made sure that it will be gone soon..........get use to it.....pay for all the drunks, smokers, and couch potatoes that live off the system....lol
14 :
If you said health insurance premiums it might have made sense... people who live shorter lives use LESS resources from medicare - not more.
15 :
Well by the same token the smokers, and obese die much earlier.....which leads to less use of the health care system. So those same could argue that they should not be paying for the skinny, healthy, vegetarian guy (who is more likely to eat up more services because he will live longer and die far slower). I could see this argument working much better for life insurance, but health insurance not so much (I have known a couple of people that died of lung cancer and they received little to no actual medical treatment....other than comfort at time of death and detection and discovery of the cancer in the first place). Actually one of the arguments they actually made in China for smoking (actually attempting to increase the number of smokers) was that it would assist in control of population and reduce the burden on the government and society (especially as it concerned the elderly).
16 :
The self is the mind, and the most selfish act is the exercise of one`s independent judgment. In attacking the independent judgment of your own self interest, the Demanders Of Sacrifice, those who decry `selfishness` for `societal good`, seek to make you surrender your mind.
17 :
I can certainly see your point. Why should we have to pay for 100,000 abortions when there are those of us who think it is wrong? Why should we pay for some idiotic "artist" to smear feces on a photo of The Last Supper and have some critic call it "art"? Why should we have to pay for an organization like ACORN to do its filthy, corrupt business for the Left? If only it were as easy as only paying for what we think it right... Fat *uckin' chance.
18 :
Because there is just no way to fairly manage a system like you want. Who gets to make all these life saving decisions? How much abuse is a person allowed? Does social drinking count? How many beers can a person have before they are charged extra? Who watches all this alcohol consumption and smoking being done to make it fair to everyone when it comes to charging people more money? Does out doctors have to report us to some agency? What about our privacy laws when it comes to getting medical care? How many cigarettes is considered abuse? Do you send out private investigators watching everyone and reporting on them making sure they are behaving right? To make your system of health care work, you would have to subject Americans to a lot of invasion by whoever controls everything which would probably be the government. I wouldn't feel like we would be free with living in a world like you want. No one is perfect. Not even you. How about anorexics that won't eat at all? Do they get charged extra too. There are many people out there that are mentally ill that self medicate and abuse themselves. Do you want the mentally ill to be charged extra too even though they might not have control due to their mental illness? This is just too complicated to manage and would never work. It would take more money and more people to govern all this and end up costing us more that we are paying now for health care. Think about it.
19 :
How would Medicare know which people drink or smoke in order to charge them higher premiums? Medicare is neutral and you don't answer a medical questionnaire before being covered. By the time a person is 65 they have other health problems beside alcohol and cigarettes and that is factored in. The premium is going up to $110 per month this year and we will be paying more than 20% of the charges.
20 :
Your first question should be is why medical expenses are so high. The next question should be why you think all your money goes to medical. 32% of taxes go to military, 50% goes to debt interest, that only leaves 18% of American money actually going back to Americans in all forms of the government. So if you pay $10,000 in taxes a year, $8200 of that goes to wars in foreign countries and interest in debt to foreign countries.



Read more discussions :