"A Woman Fat-Shamed Me On The Subway — And I Fought Back"

[+ nycman]

I think life's rule should be "Mind your own fucking business"..... If I'm fat, ugly, poor, uneducated, disabled.... What the hell does it have to do with YOU ?

 

Yeah...that attitude works....until we have socialized medicine.

 

Then your FAT is EATING all of my healthcare dollars!

 

Now it is MY fucking business. It's EVERYONE's fucking "business".

 

Same with smoking, alcoholism, drug abuse...really ANY high risk behavior.

 

Once it's all for one and one for all....it gets tricky FAST.

 

And I guarantee you will see big brother paying "special attention" to these "super users".

[mike carey]

Yeah...that attitude works....until we have socialized medicine.

Then your FAT is EATING all of my healthcare dollars!

Now it is MY fucking business. It's EVERYONE's fucking "business".

Same with smoking, alcoholism, drug abuse...really ANY high risk behavior.

Once it's all for one and one for all....it gets tricky FAST.

And I guarantee you will see big brother paying "special attention" to these "super users".

Living here in socialised medicine nirvana* this is exactly what happens. Well, sort of. We don't have big pharma concocting expensive cures for obesity, or more to the point of expensive long term treatments for it. The discussion however is not about shaming fat people. Rather, there is a serious discussion in the health care community about how to deliver better health to people, and save money in the long run, by putting more resources into primary health care measures to reduce the incidence of obesity. (There is also a serious discussion about a tax on sugary drinks, to the predictable objections of the sugar industry.) Discussion about alcohol has been primarily about the antisocial effects of excessive consumption rather than the health effects, with only one specific tax measure, which applied to the sweet fruity vodka and bacardi premixed drinks. Smoking has faced the full gamut, bans on advertising and sports sponsorship, progressively banning smoking in more and more public spaces, gory pictures on cigarette packs and finally plain packaging (olive green packs, same font for every brand, no logos or trademarks, and new, bigger gory pictures of diseased people). Oh, and shameless raising of cigarette taxes.

 

There seems to be a fear in the US that universal health insurance or a single payer system will lead to savings by the denial of treatment to some people. Given your history of cancellation of the health insurance of people who had the nerve to actually fall ill under your pre-ACA coverage, you are right to be concerned. It doesn't have to be that way (even under US practice pre- and post-ACA I've read in here of health care providers spending money now to save money later), public health measures and preventative primary care can reduce the amount of expensive treatment later. If the prevention and the treatment are funded from the same bucket of money, there is more incentive for the former to happen.

 

*Not really nirvana, and not particularly socialist. But also there is no general feeling that someone else's conspicuous unhealthy appearance or behaviour is a threat to anyone else receiving health care.

[+ Cash4Trash]

I know several dancers and perhaps she was speaking only her truth. Not shaming you but envious of not having to spend every hour of every day worried about gaining 2 pounds and losing her job.

Dancers I know consider a bottle of seltzer and a tic tac lunch.

[LADoug1]

Smokers pollute my air. In fact, I can tell if someone is smoking whether or not I can see their cigarette, it's that bad.

 

If I am around a smoker for any length of time, I get a sinus infection. This happened every time I was staying in the same place as my mother-in-law when she smoked. (She eventually quit.) I had to put my foot down about not traveling with her and not staying where she stayed (not a hotel, a relative's home) to avoid getting sick.

 

Smokers are free to invade my space if they're wearing impermeable helmets that keep me from being exposed to the fumes. Otherwise, I need them to stay the hell away, as their smoke literally makes me sick.

I can even smell smoke from another car when driving. Yuck.

[+ quoththeraven]

ACA coverage is community-rated, not experience-rated. The point of any public health system is to treat people irrespective of prior conditions.

 

Existing condition limitations are also effectively illegal and have been for years prior to the advent of ACA. Effectively illegal in that a break in prior coverage, or no prior coverage, permits a short-term exclusion, but is so administratively unwieldy no insurer bothers to use it.

[BgMstr4u]

As a former New Yorker .....

 

One quickly develops what might be called the PT (public transportation) Persona. Noncommittal face, benign reactions to almost everything, a half an eye on your nearest exit, autocalculating spatial positioning, scanning the scene without actually looking like an aspiring policeman, all possessions in virtual griplock ready to go, soothing but meaningless word ready to be spoken, looks absorbed, no, transfixed, by the transit line graphic, or failing that, the ad for the attorney who can make you a millionaire by exploiting your hangnail. This defense is all but impenetrable. I believe they test drones in the subway to see if they can break through the shield wall. So far no success is the word. . Have a nice day! ):