Exploding head

Did you ever read an article or book that didn't sit right. Sometimes a sentence will cause instant pain to your brain. Usually for me it's a bald faced lie or obvious misstatement.

In Thursday's Plain Dealer there was two stories having to do with a new program started at the beginning of the year. This program is aimed at getting people in better shape. The Cleveland Clinic,Curves and other sponsors worked out a deal where every resident in Cuyahoga county gets a free 3 month gym membership. It's called GoFit and all you have to do is ask for a membership at the YMCA or Curves. So far fifteen thousand people have registered on line and forty five hundred have shown up for an initial assessment.

The second article starts with the sentence,( Going to a company sponsored gym or smoking cessation workshop makes for a healthy society, as every member of Congress seems to agree.) Some health care advocates have a problem with the current health care reform as it relates to these programs. Their problem is that people could be penalized for either refusing to participate or not achieving results.

Now here's the good part, If people attend but keep smoking or don't lower their B.M.I. they are afraid they will be penalized, fine. But they follow with this sentence. This could undo a key objective of health care reform: to keep people from paying more for insurance based on health factors they may be unable to control.

Unable to control, smoking and eating too much are controllable cancer and hereditary diseases are not. This is why costs are going to grow uncontrollably when the government takes over. Insurance companies use actuaries to assess a price for a policy. Not the government they want to charge everybody the same. People seem to understand this with life insurance. A twenty year old doesn't pay thee same for life insurance as an eighty year old. Why should a healthy person pay the same as a smoker or obese person.