Insurers should rate people via cholesterol tests, not weight
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Re: "Fat people should pay for their obesity!", Letters, yesterday.
I had mixed feelings – mostly negative – to Don Alemans’ letter in which he notes the staggering healthcare costs caused by obesity.
Actually, for years I have said health insurance companies should require cholesterol tests and charge customers accordingly. Since it’s rare for anyone with a cholesterol reading below 150 to get a heart attack, anyone with cholesterol that low should be charged much lower rates.
But it’s very cruel for Aleman to say we should insult fat people and it’s foolish to believe such cruelty will motivate fat people to lose weight.
It’s also hypocritical for him to be so self-righteous about fat people when he’s a smoker.
He writes, “Not many smokers are on crutches, in wheelchairs or require an elevator to scale two floors”.
Oh yeah?
I used to know a smoker who had lung cancer and was so weak his friends had to carry him to his bedroom when he wanted to go to sleep.
I knew another smoker who could barely breathe.
While people say it’s their business if they want to give themselves illnesses, it’s my business if I have to pay for their illnesses with higher insurance rates and higher taxes.
Eric Bahrt
Pattaya
