Raise your hand if you are still filled with anger when you hear the name AIG and picture the more than $100 million of your tax dollars that were delegated--without your consent--for employee bonuses there.
Now raise your hand if you were angry when you learned that Citigroup (which has received so much bailout money that American taxpayers have been dubbed "its major stockholder") was planning to spend $50 million of your money on a luxury jet. (A purchase that was later nixed thanks to criticism from the media and government watchdogs.)
If you raised your hand you're not alone. If you're still angry, you should be. There is something inherently distasteful about being expected to foot the tax bill for someone else's personal choices--particularly bad ones--and not being given any choice of your own in the matter. Which is why I am so surprised that there has been so little anger expressed by leaders on either side of the health care debate when it comes to the issue of personal choice and responsibility in health care.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, "obesity costs our nation as much as $147 billion per year in direct health care costs and lost productivity." And according to the nation's oldest anti-smoking organization smoking costs taxpayers a whopping $300 billion dollars annually, or 1,000 times the amount of the AIG bonuses.
Some health care reform advocates will argue these costs would be lower if there were government subsidized health care, but my question is why should the government, specifically taxpayers, subsidize health care costs for conditions that are not only preventable but essentially chosen by the patient? With all of the anger surrounding the health care debate, at town halls, in the House and Senate, where is the anger about personal responsibility?
This issue hits close to home for me. Diabetes runs in my family (a reality that unfortunately, hangs over my sweet tooth like a dark cloud). Of two family members battling the disease--one in its earliest stages--both were given a strict dietary regiment to follow. One did, and was able to forgo costly medication. The other chose the irresistible Southern cuisine that is a staple of so many African-American diets (mine included) over doctor's warnings and the promise of a healthier weight. His health has suffered accordingly. Now I'm not self-righteously proclaiming that I am definitely disciplined enough to make a different choice than he (ask me in a few decades), but I simply don't believe that whether I do or not is your problem.
To be clear, personal responsibility is not only up to consumers. Mayor Bloomberg's success in curbing smoking in New York is due to a multi-pronged strategy of aggressively fining bars and restaurants that allow patrons to flout the anti-smoking ban and raising the cost of cigarettes, in essence targeting the dealer as much as the addict. A similar strategy should be undertaken federally against fatty foods and drinks (including many of the ones I love). But as long as groups like the AFL-CIO oppose efforts to hold Americans financially accountable for their personal health choices, so that the system can afford to treat those who do not choose to be sick, taxpayers have every reason to question handing the government a blank check to "fix" health care.
In addition to being angry with AIG, I am also angry at the greed displayed by insurance executives such as the ones who so barbarically tried to deny coverage of Dawn Smith's brain tumor treatment. (Not to mention the one who recently required my doctor to verify--twice--that I "need" a medication, despite the exorbitant premium that I pay.) Greed is certainly one culprit to blame for this broken system, but personal responsibility is another. Yet elected officials--including the President--seem just as afraid of losing voters by telling this tough truth, as they are afraid of losing the contributions of the insurance and fast food lobby.
So the next time you are reminded of how angry you are at AIG or any other institution that was "bailed out" with your money, just remember that AIG may have mugged you once, but McDonald's and your neighbor keeping them in business (and whoever invented the doughnut, bacon cheeseburger), will be sucking your wallet dry for decades to come.
An earlier version of this piece ran on TheLoop21.com for which Goff is a political writer.
www.keligoff.com
Follow Keli Goff on Twitter: www.twitter.com/keligoff
If we are going to have universal health care then we will by default need universal preventative health care. The new law should also provide:
1. Smoking is banned. And crops of tobacco will be burned like marijuana is now.
2. Obesity is a misdemeanor. You will get a ticket for being fat since it is against public policy. You will be sent to reeducation camps and weight reduction camps.
3. Alcohol has created a public health and criminal problem of epidemic proportion. Alcohol will again be banned except if prescribed.
4. All sugar will be taxed. This includes processed sugar foods such as pies, cakes etc.
5. All soft drinks will be taxed.
6. All fruits, vegetables and healthy alternative foods will receive federal subsidies.
7. Treatment of alcohol and drug addiction will be mandatory.
Sugary foods should not escape taxation at the grocery store. Heavy taxation on cigarettes with collected taxes going to healthcare.
As for the woman writing this article, as minority she would be the first to discriminate against obese people to deny them health coverage? You should be developing talking points for Limbaugh's show.
I bet if Ms. Goff was told where she could go and what she could do and eat, she just might have a different attitude about CONTROLLING other people. Read your history, Ms. Goff!
Email Karen Ignani,
the CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans,
the insurance industry lobbying group.
Karen Ignani email address…. kignani@ahip.org
What about people who choose to take drugs? Heroin, Crack, etc.?
Shouldn't we exclude them too for their choice?
What about people who choose to drink alcohol?
Shouldn't we exclude them too for their choice?
What about people who choose to engage in unprotected, unsafe sex?
Shouldn't we exclude them too for their choice?
Attempts to restrict individual choice for the good of the whole are attempts to strip us of our civil rights!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/03/joe-scarborough-asks-dyla_n_250041.html
Those "people" are public enemy #1. Everybody else's leeching is small time, and directly or indirectly enabled by corporatism, such as Archer Daniels Midland's bribery of Congress (campaign "contributions") for subsidies for corn syrup and corn ethanol.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=grass-makes-better-ethanol-than-corn
I also find it interesting that the list of things that the working class and the poor need to do to “better themselves” continues to grow. We are expected to work, often more than one job, go to school, take care of our families, all while our paychecks are decreasing and our cost of living is increasing, and then you expect us to “be healthy” stop smoking, stop drinking, and stop overeating.
Personal responsibility seems to be a goal of the working class and of the poor, but not of those with power and access. I believe in personal responsibility, but everyone needs to be responsible, not just one class of people.
Pollution makes you fat. Toxins attack the thyroid and the body works hard to store fat when you have an overload of toxins in your body because it stores toxins in fat to keep it away from vital tissue. It's a fact. Look it up. GM foods are not digested by the body the way naturally occurring food is. The problems this causes on the body are believed to be many.
I am obese now because I was misdiagnosed by a prominent neurologist with two disorders and mistreated with several medications which totally mess up one's metabolism and cause weight gain. One of my physicians laughed and said one would gain ten pounds a year on one med if one lived on tap water. I am attempting to lose that weight and struggling to do it, and I have never hurt anyone in my life, have never driven drunk because I rarely if ever drink, have never abused prescription or illegal drugs and yet everyone judges me because of my size.
America needs better eating habits, no doubt about it, but I am tired of HATE being directed at fellow Americans by people who ignore the drunks, the meth heads, the crack heads, the people who drive aggressively, talk on their cell phones while causing severe problems in traffic, and greedy people who have virtually ruined the country with their actions.
The main reason that health care is in such a mess is because of absence of the concept of "Publicke Goode" and perpetuation and tolerance of rampant corporate greed. Encouraging people exploited by this system to squabble among themselves is not helpful.
I'm sorry for your loss and sorry you had to deal with the health care system before it is reformed. I consider the plan I describe below as both "a pound of flesh" and an ounce of prevention for anybody who will have to deal with the health care system in the future. Please sign.
Congressional Republicans perceive no need to negotiate on health care reform, and so far they're right. They have few if any votes to gain by supporting any public health care option and absolutely no chance of increasing their campaign donations from their current list of sponsors, which are overwhelmingly corporate.
But reward is not the only kind of incentive Congressional Democrats can use, and health insurance corporations are not the only donors that are owed favors from Congressional Republicans. They obviously don't want to negotiate, but they can be forced to, by taking away the $70,000,000,000 ($70 Billion) of federal subsidies per year from corporate producers of petroleum, coal, and corn ethanol which also happen to be major corporate donors to Republicans.
http://www.grist.org/article/2009-09-22-fossil-fuel-subsidies-dwarf-clean-energy-subsidies-obama-wants
The time is right, as final health care reform negotiations between the House and Senate conclude, to divide the opposition.
http://www.reedyoung.org/politics/general_welfare/medical_care/2010/01/10/
Please, sign the petition
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/4/stop-giving-taxpayers-money-to-corporations-who-fight-against-our-right-to-medical-care
Until a carton of milk costs less than a corn syrup soda
Until corporate control of our food system has it's federal welfare system pulled
Until poor people can afford to eat healthy
Then you, my dear, are blaming the victim!
;-)