Flab Tab

Jacob Sullum | May 15, 2003

A new study estimates that the health care costs associated with excessive weight amount to $78.5 billion a year, putting gluttony in the same ballpark as smoking. Significant differences in medical expenses were found mainly for the obese, as opposed to the merely overweight. Since one-third of Americans qualify as obese while two-thirds are considered overweight, these findings could make a war on fat more politically salable. By focusing on people who make the portly seem thin, perhaps the government could win majority support for a campaign, modeled after the anti-smoking crusade, that vilifies, stigmatizes, and ostracizes a sinful, irresponsible minority.

Comments

G.I. Jane Doe|5.15.03 @ 9:02AM|#

Better take good care of this body of yours.

YOURS? Excuse me, your body ain't yours.

No smoking! No drinking! No eating fat! No running with scissors! No bungee-jumping! Etc, ad nauseam.

Your body is Public Property. (So you probably don't have to take care of it anyway -- it is Government Property.)

Ad you thought you owned your own body; your own thoughts; your own life?

Ha! You've got another think coming -- if "they" let you.

Robert Hutchinson|5.15.03 @ 9:14AM|#

There ought to be a pound-to-litigation-dollar chart available for review somewhere. Who knows how many millions I've thrown away in the past five months by eating responsibly? I could cross the line from obese to overweight at any moment! I'm so worried, my heart could stop, and if it's not cholesterol's fault, I'm screwed!

Sean|5.15.03 @ 9:41AM|#

I for one am tired of carrying all these fat people with the obese alcohol and cigarette taxes I pay.

RS|5.15.03 @ 11:14AM|#

hey, who knows, maybe this'll push the gravity-less-challenged towards a libertarian thought process.

Jim|5.16.03 @ 1:16AM|#

Seems to me if being fat is that unhealthy, someone should look at the mortality statistics like they did with smoking to determine how much money fat people are saving us in pensions, social security and medical costs by dying early before they get stuck with the blame for that full $78 billion figure. If being obese is that damn unhealthy there should be a similar correlation, I think...

Gilbert Martin|5.16.03 @ 1:39AM|#

This is just another example as to how govt interference/involvement in something is leveraged and used as an excuse for ever increasing govt involvement.

Govt stuck it's nose into the health care business and created medicare, mediciad, etc. that requires the taxpayers to pick up the tab for other peoples medical treatment. Now that intereference is used as an excuse for more interference - fat people are costing the govt money.

No - it's the fact that govt created those socialized medicine programs to begin with that is costing the govt money.

The answer to saving the taxpayers money is simple. Get the govt out of it altogether - not further into micromanaging everybody's life.

angua|5.16.03 @ 2:02AM|#

One-third obese and two-thirds overweight? Aren't there ANY skinny Americans?

|5.16.03 @ 4:00AM|#

Those obesity studies are notorious for poor design, taking little care to control for factors like diet and exercise. Do fat people who exercise on a regular basis have the same problems as those who don't? What about those who eat are obese but eat a healthy diet vs. those who eat a lot of red meat. Few of the studies I've seen are designed to answer these questions.

Bill Anderson|5.16.03 @ 4:02AM|#

Today, torts are simply a moneymaking entity for law firms and a vehicle for people who wish to destroy the institutions of private property and free enterprise by manipulating the law.

Indeed, the law has ceased being a shield and instead has become a sword to be used by the state and by all who wish to destroy what was once a great civilization.

|5.16.03 @ 4:18AM|#

Forget about fat people, why pare it down to just one stupid sub-group? OK, they're the majority, but still. What about all that money being wasted on unhealthy people in general? If all those damn unhealthy people would just watch their health, then we'd save everybody a lot of time and bother.

I propose a law that says we tax all unhealthy people. This tax should be collected at the time of health care service, which means that the burden of proof that you are unhealthy depends entirely on people volunteering that information (unless we get a rash of "patient snatching"). After the medical community collects and reports this tax, the government will then pay physicians, et al for services performed.

Lefty|5.16.03 @ 8:24AM|#

How about a secondhand fat study? Obesity is probably catchy.

Andrew Lynch|5.16.03 @ 8:26AM|#

I'm not sure this study has any scientific merit. Why? It doesn't allow for fat girls who are smarter and make more money than skinny boys. They exist, you know. And what about ropy black neconservative women who are less lucky in love than their rotund liberal Asian male counterparts? This study is so one-sided.

Russ|5.16.03 @ 9:34AM|#

I gained a lot of weight after I quit smoking.

|5.16.03 @ 10:13AM|#

I have a theory about the $78.5 billion. I think these fat guys are the same ones who smoke, who show up drunk at work, who beat their wives, and who drive gas-guzzling SUVs with black smoke belching out the back. I bet they even flunked out of college.

I think the "For Your Own Good" (yes, I bought the book) crowd starts with $80 billion as the imaginary air grab number, tweaks it slightly, and then applies it to one of the behaviors of the people they don't like.

Me? I'm against vegetarians. Their diets produce too much greenhouse gas.

Mark S.|5.16.03 @ 12:49PM|#

All I have to say is if I have to stand outside in 20 degree below zero weather to enjoy a Twinkie because of a "No Junk Food" sign posted on the front door...

md|5.16.03 @ 12:51PM|#

I just want a health insurance credit for being thin that balances the penalty I pay for smoking. Why do the fatties get a free ride while the smokers pay through the nose?

|5.17.03 @ 3:17AM|#

This anonymous writer -- "I propose a law that says we tax all unhealthy people. This tax should be collected at the time of health care service," -- apparently completely skipped reading Gilbert Martin's post.

Hey, moron! Do us all a favor, highlight/copy Gilbert Martin, press Alt-F, right-click/paste, hit Enter and do your homework, will ya?

Unvarnished|5.18.03 @ 7:31AM|#

Here's a little truth for ya':

YOU ARE GOING TO DIE.

WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE.

They can ban overeating, smoking, drinking, oreos, red meat, anything else with the taint of being unhealthy and, you know what?

You will still die.

There will always be something the world's nannies can go on a crusade against that is less healthful than something else. If we were all vegans there'd be crusades for banning sugary fruit or something, because the crusaders aren't happy unless they have something to crusade against that makes them appear to be brighter than you unenlightened slobs out there in the great unwashed.

They need to be told to shut up and get their gruby lawsuits off of our cheeseburgers, but, alas, successful tobacco lawsuits have opened that door and it won't end until every company that provides a consumer product has been liabilitied out of business -- unless we fight the very concept of legal nannyism.

Meanwhile, we're all going to die of something. Get used to it.

Clarence Darrow|5.19.03 @ 1:37AM|#

Re: "WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE."

Sure we are. But at least we lawyers will die happy and rich, after which we'll land in heaven with 7 virgins.