We Can't Serve You, Sir--You Are Too Fat

I mentioned a couple of days ago about how the British National Health Service is discussing paying a truly shocking amount of money for "surrogate mothers" to bear children for couples who can't have them (both heterosexual and homosexual couples)--while life threatening illnesses (not elective procedures like this) are too expensive for NHS to handle.

I've also mentioned in the past that while some legitimate medical procedures were on long waiting lists in Canada, the Ontario Health Minister was enthusiastically supporting having the government pay for sex change operations--a procedure that is at best elective, and at worst, a waste of money.

Now, a friend points me to this proposal being considered in the Mississippi legislature that is a logical outgrowth of the idea that we are all in this together with respect to health insurance--a law that would prohibit restaurants from serving the obese. Now, if I ran a restaurant, there are people who might suggest need to go elsewhere. But that does not seem to me to be the government's job, anymore than it is their job to tell you who many children to have, what position to have sex in, or whether or not you are allowed to have cookies in the house or not.

Government health insurance is going to inevitably lead to all sorts of bizarre struggles about what is to be allowed, what is to be banned--and what is to be required. For some people, a big family is a blessing from God. For others, it's a weird and somewhat freakish form of genetic imperialism. I'm sure that if the federal government becomes the single health insurer, as many Democrats want, there will be calls from the ZPG crowd to insist that the government only pays for the first two children.

If I have to pay for liver transplants for alcoholics--I am going to insist (not that anyone will listen to me) that the government prohibit these alcoholics from drinking. If I have to pay for medical care for the obese, it is perfectly understandable that the government start telling restaurants that they can't serve the obese. If we have to pay for AIDS treatment, which is very expensive, it is perfectly reasonable to insist that you don't engage in risky behavior.

Having the government be the ultimate insurance company means "one noose, one neck." We are all in this together. At best, we end up paying an increasingly absurd amount of money to deal with bad lifestyle choices. At worst, we end up with an increasingly authoritarian level of control over personal choices.