A little over a month ago Shawnee County, Kansas voted to raise the rates of ambulance rides for obese folks.
If you weigh 359lbs or below your trip in an American Medical Response ambulance will cost you $629 and the per mile cost will be $11.09 per mile. Gain a pound and your rate will jump 86% to $1,172 and your per mile rate will rise 44% to $16.00 per mile.
Ken Keller, the director of American Medical Response Topeka division states it's not discrimination but rather it's to help pay for additional equipment and manpower.
So Ken, who else should pay more? Maybe quadriplegics and paraplegics should pay more too. How about really tall folks? Maybe folks on supplemental oxygen?
If I've got any over 350lb readers in Shawnee County - if you need an ambulance ride, I'd also hire a lawyer because there's no way in my mind that this fat tax is legal.
[Hat tip to my sensei and friend Claudio Iedwab]
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I don't know. I don't mean to be disagreeable, but if you are paralyzed or tall or on oxygen it is likely to not be your fault. But your weight, at least as a an adult, is your concern. Yes?
ReplyDeleteFault is not the concern of medical care, nor is obesity something to necessarily fault someone for as there are many reasons and contributors to the condition.
ReplyDeleteSadly there is no condition other than obesity where folks like you feel comfortable ascribing blame.
Smokers who need supplemental oxygen in ambulances don't pay more than folks with non-smoking related lung diseases.
Alcoholics who require transport due to their alcoholism don't need to pay an extra levy.
Anonymous, your confusion stems from your own inherent bias against the obese.
If alcoholics had to pay more to be transported because it costs more to transport them,, I would imagine no one would take issue with an extra levy.
ReplyDeleteIt is not shocking that those who cost the system more have to pay more in a system currently based on private healthcare.
Do you also have an issue with insurance companies charging those who are obese with higher premiums?
Wow... are they serious about this tax? When did saving people become so intermingled with making money? We're taking about ambulance rides - not airplane seats here!
ReplyDeleteObese individuals should be made to pay more for ambulance rides if the cost is more to transport and care for them than non-obese individuals. I also feel they should be made to pay radically more for health insurance, as should smokers, heavy drinkers, drug users, etc. These people have chosen this manner of being, of living - let them pay for their fair share of the burden they are putting on the health care system
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