Both the studies and the article are too narrow. The point is, I don't care how much health care for fat people costs, I only care how much health care for fat people costs me. Of course health care costs more for people who live longer, but they are also contributing more productivity over the course of those long lives. There is an implicit assumption in these studies that the public share of health care costs is roughly equal for all groups, but I'm not convinced that is the case. Let's see some studies showing how much of fat people's lifetime earnings are devoted to health care vs. skinny people's, and how much of each group's health care expenditure is borne by government programs. What we need is more discrimination, not less. No ivory-tower academic or governement bureaucrat could be better at quantifying costs than a competitive marketplace. The best way to identify the costs of fatness (as well as provide incentives to reduce it, if it turns out to be a societal good) is to make the fat people themselves pay their way. Let insurance companies charge higher premiums to fat people who refuse to change their behavior, and they'll quickly learn how much it costs.

There are plenty of studies (cited in my piece) that attempt to measure the lost productivity associated with obesity. And there are also studies (cited in my piece) that look at the direct cost to taxpayers, in Medicaid and Medicare payments.

There are major problems with these analyses, though. For example, you could say that obesity costs us productivity (and welfare money) because obese people have higher rates of unemployment. Is that because they're too fat to work? Or because employers discriminate against overweight job applicants?

It has been demonstrated that obese people DO suffer discrimination in the workplace. Part of the reason may be that employers are afraid to hire someone with potential health problems that will drive up premiums. Or maybe they just don't like looking at fat people. My guess is that fat people already pay more for health insurance, or get less coverage due to "pre-existing conditions" exclusions.

I don't think taxes or health insurance premiums will motivate people to lose weight. Weight loss is much more complicated than "eat less, exercise more." I've been doing that for nearly two months now, and have lost a total of 5 pounds. I lose 15 or so pounds, and gain them right back. I'm motivated by the fact that I can't get into some of my favorite outfits. And THAT will be different for different people as well.