YoYoMama

Healthcare, Education: Two Reasons to Worry About America's Future

Many interesting comments, and I agree with most:

John Galt: I agree. We are expected to pay for "elective" surgeries. We need to consider obesity an "elective" condition. If you choose to not to take care of yourself, you should then choose to pay for the consequences.

Right now, the system is working completely opposite. My special needs son, who did not ask to be born this way, is not covered by any insurance policy. He has a "pre-existing" condition. Yet my 300-pound face-stuffing father gets all his medications, knee surgeries, and other effects of his BAD HABITS paid for by his gold-plated state insurance plan PLUS Medicaid. THIS IS NOT RIGHT.

GeminiAtlas: You are spot on. Our food supply has been raped. Corn syrup in its many forms is in EVERYTHING. Steriod-pumped meats. Pesticide-laced fruits and vegetables. Sodium, preservatives in canned items. No wonder we're fat and sick.

HOWEVER - we still have choices to make. I have not seen ONE obese person who is also not stuffing their face with a high QUANTITY of food that is OBVIOUSLY bad for them. So I can't blame the obese person for having to eat a steriod-laced chicken breast with a can of salty corn for dinner.

But this is not what makes them fat. It's the bag of cookies afterwards, followed by the 3 hours sitting in front of the television with a bag of popcorn. DON'T TELL ME THEY DON'T KNOW THIS IS MAKING THEM FAT. They do it because THEY WANT TO, it feels good, and Medicaid covers their cholesterol and heart medicines.

As for Howard_T: I am a working mom. Men have NO CLUE how difficult our lives are. Economics have forced us to change, but MEN, for the most part, have not. Husbands STILL expect women to do MOST OF THE COOKING AND CLEANING, even if their wives also work a full time job.

So I will not be lectured by ANY man on this issue. Perhaps if men actually DID something in the kitchen or around the house to help out, men would have less to gripe about.