Zeal For Truth

*For some reference, see what I wrote several weeks ago about the current push for healthcare reform in the U.S.*

“My dearest Britains, put down your quaking cuppa and let me wipe the tears of fear from your eyes. Here, take this spoonful of sugar, for this medicine may be a little bitter, but it’s good for you. I know better than you, don’t you see? Now now, stop your crying! Don’t you worry a tit, Supernanny(state) is here to save you from the worst enemy you have ever faced. A demon who lurks in the shadows and preys, ever so slowly, on your individual. This demon lurks within you and must be excised for the good of the state…and you. Don’t you understand? It is you you should be fearing! Suppernanny(state) is here to save you from yourself! It is for your own good, and all we care about is your well being and your life!!

Also, you’re bloody expensive.”

Researchers at Oxford University say that charging Value Added Tax (VAT) at 17.5 percent on foods deemed to be unhealthy would cut consumer demand and reduce the number of heart attacks and strokes……The move could save an estimated 3,200 lives in Britain each year, according to the study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

While I hate to seem the heartless miser, but with a population of 60 million and an obesity rate of nearly one quarter of that number, it’s hard to think that such an increase of tax is purely philanthropic. Rising costs of N.H.S. (National Health Service, Britain’s publicly funded health provider with a 2007-2008 budget of 104 billion pounds sterling) has already forced them to start rationing care, including denying hip replacements to those considered to be “obese”.

Is anyone surprised? I’m not.

In fact, this is to be expected. Private businesses know that to in order to control costs, you have to either a) increase your influx of capital, b) reduce your outflow and/or c) do both. Why should a government run system be any different? If obesity is a burden on the system, it is only natural that they must then pay more for what they will most likely take (the same principle that American insurance companies use for high risk individuals, but are so chastised for by the Michael Moore’s of this nation. Oh the irony.). What is the final cost? Well, your choice, of course. Like all good socialist programs, it’s a slow ex-sanguination by the hands of the very people who begged to be saved from themselves.

Yet, this is Britain. It’s across the pond, and the Prime Minister isn’t exactly a US President, right? Think again. Considering the recent bans on trans-fats in both New York City and Seattle, the plague of smoking bans across US states, it seems Americans want the same “salvation” in the loving arms of Supernanny(state). Even more alarming, with a population of nearly five times that of the U.K., and projected obesity rates of 75% by 2015, perhaps we should consider what we are giving up while we are pushing so hard to give in.

Don’t worry, that “free” health care is going to cost you.