Why can't fat people be seen the way anyone who struggles w/a health condition is seen? With compassion (unless you're an asshole, in which case Your condition of being an asshole merits its own compassion - a compassion that people are often too hard-pressed to give, because, well, you're an asshole, which is a very noxious thing to be). It's not like people Want to be fat. It's not like food isn't being pushed at Everyone, 24/7. It's not like most diets actually Work for people. Hell, even exercise doesn't work. Not for weight loss. Time just had an article to that very thing. Why would Anyone who is a reasonably sane, intelligent, and even semi-compassionate person want to judge or punish people who already suffer health maladies and struggle with societal contempt? You'd have to be a loser to want to hate on such people. As for charging fat people more for their health condition, that's just silly. It's like charging cancer victims more. Charge the cigarettes more, if you must. Tax them. Tax the damn soda, if you must. Those are things that people can work to ween themselves off. But, you Don't (ethically) punish the person w/lung cancer by making them pay higher premiums. Ditto, fat people. It's so stupid. Lots of thin people do things to stay thin that are unhealthy. People, for instance, who vomit up food wouldn't have to pay higher premiums, even though what they are doing is terrible on the body. Also, people who are thin because of dumb luck - ie: genetics - wouldn't have to pay more. Until/unless they get fat as they age, so this whole thing is ageist, as well. I think most reasonable people can see that fat people suffer and struggle. They go for extremely dangerous operations, like gastric bypass, after years of trying to lose weight. They are lonely. They are sad. They struggle to find the right clothes to wear and the right way to eat and to exercise, and they still never seem to lose much weight, most of them. On the other hand, appearances can be deceptive. Fat people can have normal bloodwork and exercise and be reasonably healthy for their size, whereas thin people can be heart-attacks waiting to happen. None of that matters, though, because we should not have a society where a person's illness is yet another reason for health insurance to crap out on them. If you think this is okay, then you should be charged high premiums for whatever health condition you suffer from, even if you feel that you did Nothing to bring it on. You may be wrong on that, but it really doesn't matter if you did/did not bring on your health condition (and are the lines really so starkly drawn, anyway, between personal responsibility and fate)? If we are going to continue to treat our health like we do our car insurance - you pay and pay and pay for Years, yet have one accident, and you're screwed, premium-wise - then it makes sense to penalize people for just getting older. Age is a risk factor for health complications. And, people bring it on themselves by living too long. Especially all those pesky thin people. Do we want to try a more compassionate view of health, or do we just want more *hellth* care? If the latter, then charge the fat bastards up the wazoo. And, be ready to get the same deal when Your health craps out. As it will, at some point.

It's not their fault... Fat people didn't have anything to do with them becoming fat... Food is being PUSHED AT THEM. They can't help it!!!

I don't know whether you're fat or not, but speaking as a fat person, I would like to inform you that I am an adult. I am capable of making my own choices. I can choose whether I eat food or not, and whether I work out or not.

ANYONE that tells you that "diet and excercise doesn't help you lose weight" is full of shit. There's no equivocation there. People are fat because they consume more calories than they burn off. If someone got educated on metabolism and made good choices, they would become not-fat quickly.

I've had periods in my life where I made good choices, and the pounds melted off... and I've had periods in my life (including now) where I've made bad choices, and the pounds came back.

I am a fully capable adult, and was a fully capable adult during the times when I made good choices and the times when I made bad choices.

My bad choices have led me to be less healthy, which means I'll need more health care. That is a consequence of my bad choices. Either I can pay for my bad choices, or I can make everyone else suffer the consequenses of my bad choices...

I am an adult, so I choose to accept the consequences of my own actions.

Pitiful morons like yourself wish to diminish me, and make me less of an adult. You wish to invision me as too weak to act upon my own decisions, or too childish to be capable of making good decisions. That is not the case, and I quite frankly find your desire to treat me like a pathetic weak little child insufferable.

If you take this stance because you yourself are fat, and want everyone else to pity you as some childish weakling in order to absolve yourself of your own bad choices, that too is insufferable.

I don't know what created this culture of PC, but I know that I don't like it... nor do I like anyone that practices it to a fault - such as yourself.