Are you saying fat people have more or less rights than everyone else? I think we should call that "bulkism".

Such an authentic American value - All normal and thin men are created equal, fatties just eat too much. Such compassionate conservatism.

2wit

PS. BTW, I am 6'1" and 240 lbs. That is more than 30 lbs overweight. Should I not be covered by the healthcare plan?

there is a question in my mind on whether we should treat these people at all.

maybe obese people should not be in the program.

I always thought you were OK, but you are as much of a hater as they are. Aren't you ashamed? People MUST be treated equal. You are exemplifying the opposite.

I hope it was a joke that I maybe didn't get.

2wit

The obese people I have come in contact with are always denying that they have anything wrong with them, and tell people to mind their own business. Yet there is a major industry out there today "treating" these very same obese people for their "condition".

Perhaps diabetes, heart disease, and other medical problems often identified with obesity should only be covered if the patient has a healthy height/weight profile.

I'm not at all sure that 6'1" and 240 lbs qualifies as obese. there are very healthy athletes in football and baseball (and other sports) who carry 240 on a 6'1" frame easily, and are far removed from obesity.

Now, 6'1" and 300 lbs? Yeah, that would probably qualify as obese.

I've lost 100 pounds.

I didn't know how to lose it...I didn't know why I was gaining. Its the DIET, and sleep apnea, things like that. I got lucky, very lucky; my employer had WeightWatchers at work...got me started.

If we would help people, like maybe the government could buy Weightwatchers and Nutra System and make that science available to everyone or something, or give vouchers to people to go to WeightWatchers or something, SOMETHING????

If we HELPED people, then they would not see telling them they have a weight problem as a personal attack since they would be able to do something about it.

EVERYONE in the world knows it is our diet except us! Just take a good luck at the food in a diner, frozen potatoes remade into fries, loaded with salt, and BEEF plus plastic bread! That is what is killing us.

So we will perch, punishing people and taxing them or whatever, yaking about ideology and relgion instead of getting down and getting to work.

Has anyone considered that obesity could be as much a symptom of our health care system than a cause of overcost? We as a nation have never really pushed nutrition and fitness as a serious health issue. Rather, it is seen as a social issue based on looks and status.

Because there is no incentive to watch not only our weight but the weight of others, we have become the fattest nation. Look how long it took to redo the food "pyramid"? Perhaps, once we have to start looking at how obesity increases OUR health costs, we may start paying more attention.

Because, as any in health care will tell you, its cheaper to keep people healthy than to make people healthy. What a socialized health program will do is focus more on prophylactic treatment rather than therapeutic. Nutrition and fitness in schools will again become priority. As the educational process increases, so will our health and output. Improved nutritional practices and physical stamina correlate directly with improved study and work habits.

In a nutshell, fix our health care, we fix our weight problem.