should smokers and drinkers pay more for health care?

"Progressive Healthcare"

Arguably the greatest wrong of a progressive taxation system is that by offering tax breaks for one element, you are inevitably disadvantaging others.

Presumably it is the rich that subsidize the burden of taxation, however more often than not the wealthy don't have to pay their taxes, which shifts the burden to the middle class. Of course, the poor don't have to pay taxes, so it's Johnny Factory Foreman who pays for Opie's bridge.

Is being middle class a lifestyle choice? Presumably, if we invested properly and saved more, it becomes so. Therefore, it's only natural that if one does not wish to pay more taxes, he should stop working and become poor, or work harder and become wealthy. Preventative economics.

Are you running a business, or a social service? The purpose of Healthcare is to provide national coverage. A fair system, where all citizens are able to be covered for their ailments. In order for a system to be fair, it must apply universally. Everybody pays the same amount of taxes, everybody gets the same amount of coverage. Whether or not somebody has a higher risk of need for coverage is irrelevant, as society has already elected to accept the burden of their ailment.

An insurance company is a business. Insurance companies provide coverage, but they must also make a profit. Smoke? Higher premium. Broke your collar bone? Sorry, non-work related, we can only cover 25%. Why should we have to lose revenue for your "lifestyle choices?" Liabilities.

"Preventable diseases."

All diseases are preventable. Thyroid problem? Sorry, buster, you'll just have to work out more and eat less. Genetic dispositions are not the same as genetic conditions. An overactive thyroid is a condition, but it's disposition to developing obesity is not. You can have an overactive thyroid, and maintain a proper body weight, you just have to work harder for it than others.

However, being pre-disposed is what makes people liabilities. That is, ultimately, the problem here. Smokers and drinkers are a liability.

But it is a choice!

"It's just so hard to quit."

"It's just so hard to be thin."

"It's just so hard to be... healthy."

You underestimate the power of a good lobby, my friends. In fact, it is because of a lobby that the suggestion that smokers and drinkers should pay more has come up in the first place. People do not want to pay for smokers. This is a popular sentiment. However, it is based on a selfish principle. Why should we pay for the obese, why should we pay for construction workers, why should we pay for the retarded? Why should we pay for condition?

Some would say that there is no slippery slope. Yet, when a system is no longer universal, it is corruptible.

Jam it back in, in the dark.