The Health Care Trojan Horse
I have written any number of times about government health care as the excuse to regulate nearly everything, since nearly every individual decision and activity can be argued to affect one's health. If government is paying the health care bills, it now has an interest in regulating behaviors that might raise those bills. Given the US government has been on a 80-year mission to end the concept of individual responsibility, Obamacare is a huge milestone.
You see, Ms. Kaplan obviously thinks it is the role of government to "help Americans eat healthier" even if it means banning things. My guess is she'd not be quite as ready for government bans it they had to do with, oh I don't know, books or something similar.The excuse?
In Santa Clara County, one out of every four kids is either overweight or obese. Among 2- to 5-year-olds from low-income families, the rate is one in three. The county health system spends millions of dollars a year treating kids for health problems related to obesity, and the tab is growing.
If you haven't yet figured out that the passage of ObamaCare has emboldened the nannies at all levels, this ought to make the case. Trust me, this reporter didn't dig this nugget out. It was handed to her by those trying to justify this power grab.
Yeah, I know this is just a local action, but this is just a market test for future similar federal actions. I can just picture John Jay and James Madison arguing in a tavern. "Jimmy, I am just not sure what kind of Constitution we need. Well, John, whatever we do, we absolutely must make sure the Federal government has the power to ban toys from kids meals. Oh, and to regulate salt content too. After all, that's what we fought a war for."
Postscript: My question is, how long are health cost advocates going to nibble at the margins? Childhood obesity costs are probably close to zero, in the grand scheme of things, despite the BS numbers from "advocates." Two individual decisions drive a ton of health care costs - driving (the most dangerous activity we pursue, typically) and sex (not just in disease but in pre and post natal care). And I wonder how long it will be before government health care costs treating gunshot victims will be used to trump 2nd amendment arguments?
Evil Red Scandi:
I'm just waiting for the one child policy. My neighbor's kids drive me nuts.
April 28, 2010, 8:36 amSB7:
FYI that first link is broken.
April 28, 2010, 8:50 ammark ii:
Tyranny is created when the power to provide and the power to deny are combined.
April 28, 2010, 9:37 amIgotBupkis:
> I’m just waiting for the one child policy. My neighbor’s kids drive me nuts.
Ummm, sorry to point out to you, but I don't think even the ones which ardently support euthanasia will encourage any kind of retroactive application...
:D
And I believe the term you're looking for is "post-natal abortion".
I'll grant I've known obvious candidates for that even into the 180th trimester...
:P
April 28, 2010, 9:54 amgn:
Given that end-of-life care is such a huge portion of a typical individual's lifetime healthcare costs, wouldn't the obvious place to meddle be end-of-life care decisions? Scary prospect.
April 28, 2010, 7:43 pmmarco73:
Accidents in motor vehicles are the #1 cause of death of children in the US. The nannies need to ban eating in any restaurant that isn't within walking distance of the child's home.
April 29, 2010, 5:52 amepobirs:
This goes together well with the EPA declaring CO2 a pollutant. At any moment you could find yourself denounced as a criminal polluter merely for continuing to breathe. Hitch it together with the health care cost issue and you've got the perfect excuse for euthanizing the elderly retirees who are going to be such a massive cost issue in a few years.
Every time you hand over power to government your very life is ultimately at issue.
April 29, 2010, 7:11 amJohn David Galt:
Santa Clara isn't the only county in CA pulling these shenanigans. Sacramento County's Planning and Community Development Dept. just completed a study in which it coins a new pejorative -- "Food Deserts" -- meaning any lower-income neighborhood from which the nearest fast-food outlet is closer (by walking distance) than the nearest supermarket.
http://www.msa2.saccounty.net/planning/Documents/General-Plan/Food%20Desert%20Study%20-%20Final.pdf
April 30, 2010, 1:21 pmPeter:
I can't wait until they realize what every parent knows. That watching TV reduces a child's activity level contributing to their obesity. Then they will realize it applies to adults too. Therefore we need to ban TV and the internet, video games etc. The radio will of course remain but that would have to be regulated for proper content on federally licensed airwaves. In such a way healthcare can overturn the 1st amendment right to free speech.
May 5, 2010, 8:11 pm