"Being fat carries a much higher cost, and if you make the decision to be fat we do not want to carry that cost for you, so we will ask you to pay in a little more to cover that extra cost."

You have data showing that extra cost? Because unless and until you do you are penalizing the overweight person JUST for being overweight, and not because that person is providing additional risk. Further, under the system that exists today, if an insurance company jacks up my rates because of my weight, I can walk away. I can go to another insurance company, or even elected to do without insurance -- my body, my money, my choice.

Under the bill to which this amendment is being attached, that choice goes away -- I have a mandate, and I MUST have insurance, whether I think the amount charged for it is equitable or not, and whether the rates charged have any bearing on the the experience factors of people of my age/weight/economic status et cetera.

I want maximum freedom for the individual -- that doesn't come out of the legislation as it stands today.