On Friday the Arizona legislature passed, and Governor Brewer is expected to sign, a vicious 2012 budget that is going to knock the legs out from under schools, universities, county governments, and healthcare. Prisons do okay. The ugly details are here. The $1.1 billion in cuts will piss all over just about every family, including a lot of Tea Party dimwits who elected these small-government Know Nothings ("small government" except for that uterus thing).
About the only group celebrating are the CEOs who received a half-billion-dollar tax cut. Even some of them have recorked their champaign bottles, because they're already complaining that Arizona's schools aren't graduating students who are even qualified to work minimum-wage jobs, let alone in the high-tech industry.
About half the cuts, $510 million to be precise, come from a full-court assault on Medicaid. Perhaps 100,000 to 150,000 people will be booted from the program, and eligibility requirements will be tightened. People fortunate enough to remain covered, and about half are children, will see costs increase. Here the legislature has gotten creative.
One new wrinkle is to hit overweight patients with a $50 surcharge. According to medical ethicist Arthur Kaplan, the plan marks "the first time a state-run but federally subsidized health-care program for the poor has charged people for unhealthy acts." I'm not even sure if this passes the Fed's smell test, and HHS Secretary Sebelius may have a thing or two to say about it.
I'm not defending obesity and I'm certainly not defending junk food. I never eat at McDonalds, Burger King, and the others. Ever. Sure, if I'm on the highway I'll stop to use the bathroom and get coffee, but if Fast Food Nation depended on me, it would be bankrupt.
And yes, you can make an argument that poor eating habits are a personal choice, and therefore those who choose to gobble down big slabs of fried fat should pay more for healthcare because they're a greater cost to society. That's precisely what Arizona says:
A spokeswoman for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System said Friday that the fee is intended to rein in health care costs by pushing patients to keep themselves healthy.
Still, three groups are being unfairly penalized. One is the poor, whose neighborhoods are regularly targeted by the chains, and that's finally starting to lead to moratoriums on junk food restaurants in places like South LA. The Medicaid surcharge also applies to diabetics, many of whom are being punished through no fault of their own. Another group who will be penalized disproportionately is Arizona's large Native American population. The modern American diet of sugar- and starch-heavy Cokes and McNuggets has led to diabetes and obesity rates among American Indians that are more than twice the national average.
So, slapping a surcharge on Medicaid punishes diabetics, the state's poorest citizens, and Native Americans because, you know, they're the people responsible for Arizona's economic tailspin. Seems to me the criminals at Wells Fargo and Chase have been a greater threat to my economic security than overweight families. Oh, wait, they're getting a bonus.
But let's say the legislature is right and people should pay for their poor eating choices. Then why does our government encourage bad nutrition by subsidizing McDonalds and other joints? In effect government is saying we'll fine you if you eat poorly, at the same time they help you do just that. Some fast food advertising, for instance, is underwritten by the Department of Agriculture, and nearly every stage of the burger delivery process is subsidized -- from the feed lot to the minute you pay for the Big Mac.
Similarly, a few weeks ago the Arizona House passed a bill that makes it illegal for municipalities to regulate the gifts given away with fast-food meals. It seems Arizona's elected officials and their deep-pocketed corporate benefactors are concerned about a law passed earlier this year in California. One way San Francisco decided to battle obesity is to ban free toys in excessively high-calorie meals, thereby making junk food less attractive to children.
You can imagine how the hugely powerful restaurant lobby in Arizona reacted to that. To preempt any sort of lettuce-eatin', organic-lovin' food craze here, they picked up the phone and called down to the Capitol:
A little-known bill making its way through Arizona's legislature would make it illegal for local governments to restrict the use of toy giveaways to promote fast-food, like McDonalds' Happy Meals. Fast-food companies are behind the measure, HB 2490, which was approved in Arizona's House Commerce Committee by a vote of 6-2. Now it is headed for a full vote in the House [note: it passed]. The Arizona Restaurant Association, which lobbies for fast food interests, is backing the bill. Center for Medica & Democracy
If we're going to be serious about obesity, to the point we tax overweight people, then let's not encourage poor eating habits in our communities, schools, and workplaces. Here in Arizona, however, we're one of only two states (Mississippi is the other) that has no PT requirement for high school. Arizona has the second-fewest grocery stores per person in the nation, and one result of that is, according to the Center for Media & Democracy, is that the state ranks 4th in per capita spending on fast food.
The upshot is Arizona ranks among the "Top 10 States with the Deadliest Eating Habits." On one hand the nanny legislature is trying to get off that dubious list with a Medicaid surcharge, yet their invisible-hand-on-steroids free market frenzy is helping to maintain the "Top 10" distinction by allowing the chains to continue their heavy-handed kid marketing. According to the sponsor of HB 2490, Republican Jim Weiers, a friend of the huge cattle conglomerates,
"Government needs to stay out of the way of free enterprise ... Every business has the right to do something as long as it not actually hurting anyone else."
He brushed aside arguments that incentives to get kids to demand high-fat and high-calorie meals leads to childhood obesity. Verde Independent
And when Congress passed Michelle Obama's Child Nutrition Bill last year, every single Arizona Republican Congressman voted against it.
Be unhealthy -- here, we'll even give you some incentive. Then we'll fine you.