{"id":3920,"date":"2009-01-05T05:00:47","date_gmt":"2009-01-05T10:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=3920"},"modified":"2009-01-05T07:35:04","modified_gmt":"2009-01-05T12:35:04","slug":"attack-of-the-syllogism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=3920","title":{"rendered":"“Attack” of the Syllogism"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple weeks ago<\/a>, I “attacked<\/a>” a young lady who agreed to be interviewed and quoted by name in the StarTribune. She was objecting to health questions posed by her employer (who pays for some or all of her and her coworkers’ health insurance) regarding her personal habits.<\/p>\n

She and her husband are on a rightful mission to repeal the Smoking Ban, a government intrusion on a slippery-slope and an infringement on the rights of hospitality-business owners and their patrons. But apparently they have confused the legitimacy of their cause with the burden that smoking and obesity, predominantly the products of personal choice and lifestyle, are to our health care system.<\/p>\n

This is no small issue given the rising amplitude of liberal chatter to socialize our health care system, which would undoubtedly remove any elements of personal accountability.<\/p>\n

Be not confused. The two issues are separate. Smoking is legal and<\/em> smoking is conducive to poor health – for the smoker and<\/em> her hapless bystanders. We all pay higher health care costs because of it.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, I don’t begrudge smokers’ personal choices nor business owners’ right to allow patrons to enjoy\u00a0a perfectly legal activity\u00a0in their establishments. But keep your smoke off my body, and don’t make me<\/em> pay for your<\/em> personal choice. An assertion not usually lost on liberals or conservatives<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As the system is organized, we’re all in this together which means the system has an interest in the degree you have chosen vis a vie your habits or lack thereof, to be a burden to it, statistically at least.<\/p>\n

I drive fast and get more speeding tickets than most motorists. I don’t expect you to pay for my <\/em>actuarial increment.<\/p>\n

Let’s be clear on this too. The argument that tobacco taxes mitigate the incremental cost to society is naive<\/a>. Look no further, all moneys collected by the biggest Ponzi scheme in history<\/strike> The Social Security Administration over the years are accumulating at interest for your retirement, too.<\/p>\n

The Syllogism? Contrary to the logic “I’ve smoked three packs a day for eleventeen years and haven’t been hospitalized or died (yet),” ipso facto smoking isn’t bad for your health:<\/p>\n

1. Among other issues, smoking causes heart attacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A smoking ban in one Colorado city led to a dramatic drop in heart attack hospitalizations within three years, a sign of just how serious a health threat secondhand smoke is, government researchers said Wednesday. The study, the longest-running of its kind, showed the rate of hospitalized cases dropped 41 percent in the three years after the ban of workplace smoking in Pueblo, Colo., took effect. There was no such drop in two neighboring areas, and researchers believe it’s a clear sign the ban was responsible.<\/p>\n

The study suggests that secondhand smoke may be a terrible and under-recognized cause of heart attack deaths in this country, said one of its authors, Terry Pechacek of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n

At least eight earlier studies have linked smoking bans to decreased heart attacks, but none ran as long as three years. The new study looked at heart attack hospitalizations for three years following the July 1, 2003 enactment of Pueblo’s ban, and found declines as great or greater than those in earlier research.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

2. Heart attacks are expensive. Billions are spent on devices and medications for the prevention and prevention of heart attacks.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0We all <\/em>pay for the aggregate expense as subscribers to group health insurance plans and via Medicare and Medicaid.<\/p>\n

4. Hence, if I don’t smoke, and you do, the system is making me pay for your poor personal choices; the basis for my “attack.” That fact and the pressure of rising costs has incented health care providers and employers to rightfully seek to separate and quantify those who make good choices from those who don’t.<\/p>\n

Because it’s fair. Because it’s good business. Risk classes should be separated and held accountable to the degree they are a burden to the system. Please don’t come crying to me if you’ve drawn the short straw by your own volition<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It’s an intrusion of your rights only to the extent that the way health care is delivered, via your employer, is also broken – so the system isn’t perfect.<\/p>\n

…and if “We The People” don’t fix the system, the government will.<\/p>\n

Put that<\/em> in your pipe and smoke it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple weeks ago, I “attacked” a young lady who agreed to be interviewed and quoted by name in the StarTribune. She was objecting to health questions posed by her employer (who pays for some or all of her and her coworkers’ health insurance) regarding her personal habits. She and her husband are on a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}