Alabama's Fat Tax

Obese state employees may soon have to pay an additional $25 in health insurance per month. Some argue that it asks the people most likely to consume health care resources to invest in it now. Others cite discrimination and unfair policies toward the overweight.

I’m not going to comment on the delicate politics of this situation, but it does give us food for thought.

Chronic disease, (not car accidents, trauma, gunshot wounds etc.)… chronic disease which is often preventable, has the potential to bankrupt our health care system. When 1 in 4 Americans has a blood sugar disorder, what will happen to their health 20 years from now? If we don’t wake up now, then 20 years will pass and our hearts will be sick, our brains will be on fire and ours organs will fail. What can any doctor, even the world’s best doctor, do at that point? From an economic standpoint, these sick people will continue to consume healthcare resources for problems that could have largely been prevented.

Check out this article from the Canadian Diabetes Association. It states that the health care system can pay $2000-5000 per year now to properly care for a diabetic or pay $50,000 a year to care for a diabetic who has progressed to kidney failure.

This article was published in the Mississippi Business Journal in 2006. In it, Dr. Marshall Bouldin, Director of the Diabetes and Metabolism Program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said, “The burden of both type 2 diabetes and obesity is rapidly increasing and shows no sign of stopping. If our society does not change this, diabetes alone will bankrupt our medical system.”

A “tax on the fat” appears to be one proposed method to prevent this. But the more important message seems to be; to save our health care system, we must first save ourselves.

There are a lot of mysteries surrounding the cause of many chronic diseases. We aren’t even close to having all the answers. Genetic predispositions, single nucleotide polymorphisms, prenatal environment, environmental toxicants, phthalates, BPA’s, heavy metal load etc.à all these things may be relevant and it is easy to feel out of control.

But the one thing we can all do to significantly decrease our risk of most chronic disease: eat better, exercise more, reduce stress and carefully regulate our blood sugar. These things, in our control, usually outweigh the many things beyond our control. For government employees in Alabama, it will also save $300 per year.