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Comment by Maarten88 | Hacker News Reader

A sugar tax will accomplish a lot and is much easier.

Yeah I was going to say this. If you want smokers and the obese to partially fund their own healthcare, you can very easily slap taxes on cigarettes and soft drinks, earmark that money to go to insurance, and call it a day.

I think the obese should pay for their externalities directly. Also, if the best treatment for something is “lose weight” then that should be tried first and no other treatments given until the weight is lost.

80% of people with Type II diabetes who are also overweight or obese would be asymptomatic if they lost weight. Why spend public money if there exists a free treatment? Save the public resources for right-weight type IIs and type Is.

Ahh yes, the old “just lose weight” argument, likely spoken by someone who is not and has never been overweight or obese.

Speaking as someone who has lost over a 170lbs…it ain’t eas. It is the hardest damn thing I have ever done and your body fights you every step of the way…forever. It never ends—for the rest of your life your body is constantly fighting you to get back up to the weight you were.

Also, your concept of preventing all other treatments until someone loses weight is absolutely barbaric.

I have been obese. Please don't falsely accuse me of things.

I didn’t falsely accuse you of anything. I said “likely”.

If you were obese and now are not, I applaud you. But I also know it wasn’t easy for you to make that change. I used the word “likely”, because it felt to me like you communicated in a dismissive and nonchalant manner, like someone who hasn’t gone through the difficulties necessary to do it.

That’s why you tax soft drinks instead of taxing weight directly. It may be difficult to lose weight but it isn’t particularly difficult to cut out the most extremely unhealthy foods.

I’d be ok with that, but I don’t think it’s all that simple to cut out unhealthy foods. One, most healthy foods are pretty expensive and a lot of unhealthy foods are not. It can be difficult for people on a tight budget to eat healthy.

You also need to consider that a sugar tax can hit lower income people a bit harder.

You could use the tax income to subsidize healthy foods. Or just redistribute it to low income people.

It cuts in many ways: save money and gain health by drinking water/tea/coffee instead of softdrinks. Use the money for healthier foods.

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