Alabama Plans to Tax Fat Employees to Recoup Insurance Costs

[--Pete]

Hi,

However, I think you miss the point in your reference to Jefferson. Frankly, he who pays the piper should be permitted to call the tune, IMO. If those state employees won't find a way to live healthy, why should the taxpayer who shells out the taxes to pay for those salaries and health insurance be on the hook for their bad decisions?

So, if you get hired at 20, you should not pay for your health insurance at work, but if you get hired at 50 you should? If neither of your parents had heart trouble, you get a free ride, but no insurance for you if you didn't pick the right parents? What if you don't exercise (it is much healthier to be fat and fit than lean and out of shape)? And note, it isn't just a $25 fat tax they are speaking about -- that I could accept. "Obese workers will be required to see a doctor and will have to show proof of their attempt to lose weight." That goes beyond the "you take the risk, you pay the price". That goes to "Big Brother wants you lean."

A BMI of 35 is the stated threshold. :rolleyes: And that, my friend, is not just fat, it is dangerously so!

The BMI is a poor measurement designed by mathematically and physically ignorant medical professionals. The human body is three dimensional, so dividing the weight by the height *squared* makes no sense at all. If you look at individuals from 1.2 m to 2.2 m of height, all of whom are in the same proportions and thus the same percent body fat and density, you'll get the following asinine result from the BMI:

Code:

(m)    (kg)    BMI    Classification
1.20     23    15.9    Severely underweight
1.25     26    16.5    Severely underweight
1.30     29    17.2    Underweight
1.35     33    17.9    Underweight
1.40     36    18.5    Underweight
1.45     40    19.2    Normal
1.50     45    19.8    Normal
1.55     49    20.5    Normal
1.60     54    21.2    Normal
1.65     59    21.8    Normal
1.70     65    22.5    Normal
1.75     71    23.2    Normal
1.80     77    23.8    Normal
1.85     84    24.5    Normal
1.90     91    25.1    Overweight
1.95     98    25.8    Overweight
2.00    106    26.5    Overweight
2.05    114    27.1    Overweight
2.10    123    27.8    Overweight
2.15    131    28.4    Overweight
2.20    141    29.1    Overweight

1.82    110    33.2    Obese

Yep. the BMI is really a use<strike>ful</strike>less metric. And a bodybuilder at 182 cm and 110 kg has a BMI of 33, classifying him as 'obese' in spite of his 7% body fat. :lol:

"In physical science the first essential step in the direction of learning any subject is to find principles of numerical reckoning and practicable methods for measuring some quality connected with it. I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in your thoughts advanced to the state of Science, whatever the matter may be." -- Lord Kelvin, PLA, vol. 1, "Electrical Units of Measurement", 1883-05-03

But if the units you are using to measure are meaningless, then do you have knowledge or ignorance. I vote for GIGO. Especially in light of the :wacko: nutritionists I've met.

You are free to live your life as you choose as long as you don't expect me to pay for your bad decisions.

Not asking you to. Wouldn't dream of it; I pull my own damned weight:). But if *my* weight bothers you, that doesn't give you the right to send *me* to a doctor. And if you were to try, *you* might just be the one going to the emergency room for blunt force trauma. :P

--Pete