Tax the Obese - More NI Contributions for the Super Size

[nicko31]

The West Midlands ambulance service said yesterday it had recently chosen to invest £300,000 of the taxpayers’ cash in four new bariatric vehicles with double stretchers to accomodate patients up to 50 stone in weight.
Is it not high time people were made to contribute to what is essentially a lifestyle decision, I think 1% extra NI for anyone with a BMI of >30 would cover it. Obviously anyone with a proven medical condition could be exempt.
If we don't start dealing with this madness there won't be an NHS and it will be pay as you go for everyone, and who wants that?

 

[Barrel of Fun]

I was watching 70 Stone Dad the other day. Remarkable how poorly educated some families were when it came to nutrition and exercise. The father was in hospital having emergency work done to ensure he survived past fifty, yet his daughter was at home feeding her 3 month year old cheeseburgers...

Obesity is a time bomb. There are so many factors that contribute.

All over London you will see kids hanging around outside chip shops, eating junk, before presumably heading home to play on their Xboxes or what-have-you.

 

[Mellotron]

Or perhaps like smoking, jack up the prices for really really disgusting and unhealthy food?

Rustlers Microwaveable Burgers, for starters. £7.00.

 

[Everest]

yet his daughter was at home feeding her 3 month year old cheeseburgers...

year old cheeseburgers?

Were they furry?

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Whoops!

Everyone seems to drive everywhere. Very rarely do you see people walking into town. Who is going to take responsibility of the health of children if parents do not?

 

[Mellotron]

Or perhaps like smoking, jack up the prices for really really disgusting and unhealthy food?

Waiting for "don't they already do that at Withdean?" comment...

 

[bhaexpress]

Whoops!

Everyone seems to drive everywhere. Very rarely do you see people walking into town. Who is going to take responsibility of the health of children if parents do not?

I do, mind you I have four paw drive which helps me up hills.

 

[sjamesb3466]

The West Midlands ambulance service said yesterday it had recently chosen to invest £300,000 of the taxpayers’ cash in four new bariatric vehicles with double stretchers to accomodate patients up to 50 stone in weight.
Is it not high time people were made to contribute to what is essentially a lifestyle decision, I think 1% extra NI for anyone with a BMI of >30 would cover it. Obviously anyone with a proven medical condition could be exempt.
If we don't start dealing with this madness there won't be an NHS and it will be pay as you go for everyone, and who wants that?

Unfortunately its not that easy though is it? Think of the amount it would cost to implement i.e. Get every person in the country to take a BMI test. Plus then calls to add to N.I. contributions from smokers, drinkers, people that don't exercise etc would be rampant. I know alcohol and tobbaco are taxed heavily but people that are overweight would claim they are being victimised. I agree its a growing problem (literally) but the only sensible way to stop it is for parents to start cooking proper meals for their kids and by teaching them how to cook food that doesn't come out of a packet. When I went to uni there were people who didn't know how to cook potatoes, eggs or even bloody pasta. Parents need to start taking responsibility for there children as most obesity starts from an early age.

 

[bhaexpress]

Unfortunately its not that easy though is it? Think of the amount it would cost to implement i.e. Get every person in the country to take a BMI test. Plus then calls to add to N.I. contributions from smokers, drinkers, people that don't exercise etc would be rampant. I know alcohol and tobbaco are taxed heavily but people that are overweight would claim they are being victimised. I agree its a growing problem (literally) but the only sensible way to stop it is for parents to start cooking proper meals for their kids and by teaching them how to cook food that doesn't come out of a packet. When I went to uni there were people who didn't know how to cook potatoes, eggs or even bloody pasta. Parents need to start taking responsibility for there children as most obesity starts from an early age.

Part of the problem is social. Not only is there a plethora of quick meals (few of which can be described as healthy) there's also the fact that a lot parents both work and thus they don't have to time (or the energy) to make a nutricious meal when they get home. We're bombarded by adverts for junk food and not all parents want to argue with their kids about what to eat when a pizza makes all parties happy. Ironically right now I'm working for a large NHS trust and there is a rather large proportion of the employees here who are more than a little overweight.

 

[Simster]

Unfortunately its not that easy though is it?

No. But this:

Or perhaps like smoking, jack up the prices for really really disgusting and unhealthy food?

Rustlers Microwaveable Burgers, for starters. £7.00.

 

[Mr Everyone]

Whoops!

Everyone seems to drive everywhere. Very rarely do you see people walking into town. Who is going to take responsibility of the health of children if parents do not?

Absolutely. When you look at where to shop for the best choice of goods and value for money, the most likely destinations are large out-of-town Tescos or Ikeas.

There seem to be more and more of these retail parks being built.

The majority of people frequenting these establishments will reach them in cars. Most of these places can only be accessed by private transport.

I wonder how this ties in with the government's approach on obesity and health promotion?

 

[tubaman]

Not many things are easy in life but tell a fat person to lose weight and there will ALWAYS be a reason why they can't.

 

[Badger]

Make the doors on chip shops really narrow so fatties can't get in and also make it illegal to purchase fast food for a fattie (in the same way you can't buy booze for a child).

 

[adrian29uk]

The West Midlands ambulance service said yesterday it had recently chosen to invest £300,000 of the taxpayers’ cash in four new bariatric vehicles with double stretchers to accomodate patients up to 50 stone in weight.
Is it not high time people were made to contribute to what is essentially a lifestyle decision, I think 1% extra NI for anyone with a BMI of >30 would cover it. Obviously anyone with a proven medical condition could be exempt.
If we don't start dealing with this madness there won't be an NHS and it will be pay as you go for everyone, and who wants that?

Its a scary thought. Most annoyingly again the people who have paid their taxes, worked hard are the ones that are paying. This country seriously needs to take a look at itself. Where is the reward for working hard in this country and doing the right thing?.

I see most people just living day to day to pay for the shit created by the greedy bastards who took it all when things where great, where are they now?

The ones that annoy me most are the benefits cheats, bankers and guess what the banks are still getting away with it, with our money. Also the Tories are doing what they did in the early 90's slowly piece by piece screwing things up. Who was it who privatised the trains? That would be the tories and the trains are overpriced and still shit now.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

After just recovering from PE's ( which have yet to dispurse), one of the things that the medical people have told me to look at is my weight. I am 17stone and have been for the last 12 months - I go to the gym 4 times a week, swim 40, 25mtr lengths and have lost my bulge ( ie fat around my stomach) BUT am still 17stone - 109kilos ish. I never eat fried food, or junk food, eat loads of salads and pasta and tonnes of fish.

Yet, my weight is constant I am 6 foot and by all the charts I am obese....how does that work? I even had some jobsworth suggesting I do not qualify for life insurance as I was overweight!

The problem is that there is this general view that if you are "obese" you must obviously be a binge drinker who eats junk food all the time and sits in front of Jeremy Kylie empathising with the "guests". Whilst it is obvious that there are people who do fit into that category, and my wife is a reception teacher and you would not believe some of the lunches that parents give their offspring, society and the media has generated this catch all net that if you are not a size 8 for women and look like Brad Pitt for men, you are a burden on our society. And we all know where that argument leads.

Yes society needs to address the problem of obesity in young people, however when you have a consumer society such as ours where the main object is to sell a product irrespective of the harm it causes, this is never going to change. Public education is all very well, but the people have to listen and be prepared to listen and act, otherwise its a waste of time.



.....and relax

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Not many things are easy in life but tell a fat person to lose weight and there will ALWAYS be a reason why they can't.

It's your hands, not your glands!

There was some chozzer on the front of the Sun or the Mirror recently, I forget which, essentially he weighed something like 28 stone and was complaining about how unfair life is because he's not eligible for a gastric band operation (or something like that) on the NHS until he weighed 30stone. So the fat git was whining about he feels FORCED to stuff his face to reach 30stone as a result, so he can have the op.

Hey, here's a couple of tips, Fatty: instead of filling your face with pies to get to 30stone, just so you can lose some weight, how about you EAT LESS and EXERCISE MORE, that way you will just lose weight of your own accord! AND you won't have to undergo potentially life threatening major surgery! Amazing!

Here's another tip: if you stopped eating so much, you'd probably save fifty quid a week on fried products alone, and you might even be able to PAY for the surgery privately.

Why do these people think they have some kind of entitlement to NHS surgery when they are, by and large, fat because of the lifestyle choices they have made? Is it morally acceptable for (say) people waiting for hip replacements through no fault of their own, to end up spending ages on waiting lists because the operating theatres are being used to enable the terminally lazy to take the easy way out?

 

[adrian29uk]

After just recovering from PE's ( which have yet to dispurse), one of the things that the medical people have told me to look at is my weight. I am 17stone and have been for the last 12 months - I go to the gym 4 times a week, swim 40, 25mtr lengths and have lost my bulge ( ie fat around my stomach) BUT am still 17stone - 109kilos ish. I never eat fried food, or junk food, eat loads of salads and pasta and tonnes of fish.

Yet, my weight is constant I am 6 foot and by all the charts I am obese....how does that work? I even had some jobsworth suggesting I do not qualify for life insurance as I was overweight!

The problem is that there is this general view that if you are "obese" you must obviously be a binge drinker who eats junk food all the time and sits in front of Jeremy Kylie empathising with the "guests". Whilst it is obvious that there are people who do fit into that category, and my wife is a reception teacher and you would not believe some of the lunches that parents give their offspring, society and the media has generated this catch all net that if you are not a size 8 for women and look like Brad Pitt for men, you are a burden on our society. And we all know where that argument leads.

Yes society needs to address the problem of obesity in young people, however when you have a consumer society such as ours where the main object is to sell a product irrespective of the harm it causes, this is never going to change. Public education is all very well, but the people have to listen and be prepared to listen and act, otherwise its a waste of time.



.....and relax

I know exactly what you mean. My wife goes to weight watchers and has been for the last 5 years, does all the right things and yet finds it hard to lose weight, like myself. And yes as soon as people see someone that is oversize they immediately think you sit there on the sofa eating crap. My wife is fit, like myself and could probably do better than someone who is thin at her keep fit classes.

Yet people look at someone like Cheryl Cole and immediately think she in healthy because she is thin, when in fact she is probably worse health wise due to lack of eating properly.

The BMI chart is also a load of bollocks.

 

[beorhthelm]

i saw somthing about new obese grade ambulances being purchased for £90k. it was not said what a normal one costs. £300k, is that for 1 or a fleet of 5?

anywho, tax by BMI is a crap idea, mostly because BMI is a crap measure. education is the key, and frankly ridicule of those who have cake-in-hand disease. its reall simple, stop eating. really, it is that f***ing simple.

 

[Gully]

I agree that BMI is flawed, it doesn't take into account a sportsman who is muscular (which apparently weighs more than flab) and extremely well built for their height...however, I would suggest that someone who falls into the morbidly obese category is highly unlikely to be a muscular sportsman, more likely someone whose calorie intake exceeds what they burn up...but they definitely need help.

 

[Spun Cuppa]

I had a chat with a health professional about tablets that are supposedly 'weight gainers', to be told this is a misconception. What they actually do is increase your appetite, and the remedy is, as posted above, to just stop eating so much