I am willing to pay more for airplane rights for being super obese. On the airplane, it is a very cut-and-dry question of the fact that I take up more room, and more weight, in an environment where both are at a premium.

Concerning medical stuff, aside from being ridiculously fat, it is kind of pathetic that I'm one of the healthiest people I know. In my extended family, me and one of my cousins are literally the ONLY people over the age of about 27 who are not on daily prescription drugs -- often several; who have not already lost at least one body organ; etc. Am I healthy? Probably not, given likely thyroid issues and massive weight.

Am I costing my health insurance more than my thinner coworkers? Definitely not. I just had my first full day off work in 330 days (I kid you not, and that includes weekends) today. At all times I carry a full sick bank, I seldom take personal floating holidays and I chronically lose vacation as it doesn't accrue when you are 'full' up with it. Meanwhile I have coworkers whose reasons for medical attention seem utterly endless (some for perfectly healthy reasons such as childbirth, many for depression, or the typical losing-gallbladders-etc. issues). I even have a child covered, and in the last year we've had almost nothing -- I think one flu and yesterday, a tetanus shot.

So my only gripe is that this is about gradual control and marketing, not about reality. Why not bill people based on what they actually cost the previous year/s?

Now, since obesity is a likely side-effect "when genetically allowed" of every disease--being a part of the immune system--that would have a massive increase to the money they make given now well over half the population is technically overweight.

So what we are really billing people for is genetics and age. If you are 25 and asian, it's probably going to go ok for you, but if you are 45 and German possibly not so well, and if you are any age and native American, you're completely screwed. To me the genetic relationship to whether people store fat or how much before simply developing a full-blown disease, is kind of disturbing.

PJ