A comment by a member from Germany"s parliament has sparked a lot of debate over the last few days. Marco Wanderwitz suggested that people who are overweight pay extra taxes because they cost more to provide health insurance benefits.
Wanderwitz said, “It"s legitimate to ask the question if the immense costs that are caused by the excessive consumption of food should continue to be paid for by everyone else. I think that it would be sensible if those who deliberately lead unhealthy lives would be held financially accountable for that.”
It is estimated that there are 9 million people who are overweight in Germany, which looks pretty meager when compared to fact that almost 130 million Americans are overweight or obese.
With rising health insurance costs, many Americans and people across the world have becoming increasingly worried about health care and its cost.
CBS News conducted a poll after the story was released last week. When asked whether people who are overweight should pay more — 52 percent of voters said yes and only 14 percent said no.
In 2008, $147 billion was spent on weight-related health care services in the United States. It is also estimated that around $1.8 trillion is spent a year on health care services associated with chronic diseases that are directly linked to smoking and being overweight. These costs will only rise as the number of obese and overweight people in America continues to climb.
Even though people already do pay more for health insurance when they reach a certain body mass index (BMI), it is hard to believe that you could possibly tax someone when genetic factors play a role. And is it any different than considering addiction a disease or other issues that have become medicalized over the past few years?