New Zealand Hates Fat People!

[Marimaru 7]

What is the required BMI for immigration? Does anyone know? I didn't see it in the article.

The basic premise actually makes sense to me, as upsetting as it must be for that couple.

[transformer 1]

Chickie--I get it now--sorry I'm a little "slow" today! :doh:

What if all of us "obese" folks get rounded up and we get abandoned on a deserted island or something because no one wants to care for us because we're too expensive? :think

[Chickie 15]

Chickie--I get it now--sorry I'm a little "slow" today! :doh:

What if all of us "obese" folks get rounded up and we get abandoned on a deserted island or something because no one wants to care for us because we're too expensive? :think

That is NOT what I am saying at all.

I am saying it is irresponsible for a country to take in a person that they KNOW will cost their tax payers money, in the short, or long term. Setting a BMI limit to prevent obesity related expense is a sound financial move.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

And my last point!! NZ has FREE health care, which EVERYONE including immigrants are intitled to - and there have been many cases of this being abused by people from overseas. Bit hard to abuse the US health care where everyone has to have insurance don't they???

OMG NO!

It's abused here daily. Our county hospitals cannot deny people care. So people go there and just don't pay the bills. People from Mexico live in Mexico, stay there, work there, pay taxes there, but get a US PO box and claim to live here and collect welfare and free medical care.

Our system is abused in every way possible. Insurance doesn't have anything to do with it.

There are quite a few times when people with no insurance get better medical care than those with insurance.

It's horrible.

I fully support what New Zealand is doing. I don't blame them a bit. To have an already over burdened system and then encourage more people to come in and be tax dependent, it's just not wise. Nobody can afford it. Money is not a bottomless pit where one can pay and other spend and spend. It just doesn't work, eventually those that have paid into the system for their whole lives are supporting those that haven't.

[transformer 1]

Does anyone think the U.S. will follow suit someday and start refusing to allowing in people who strain our system whether they be illegal immigrants, fatsos like me, etc.?

Seems we turn a blind eye here to anyone and everyone who wants to come in--kids are registered at schools in my city daily who don't even have birth certificates. Yet my own kid couldn't attend public school without documentation...hmmm! That's how we wind up with 14-year-olds towering over their fellow Little Leaguers.

Of course, I sincerely hope I'm a "svelte model of hot deliciousness" before people start being identified as those who must be eliminated for being too burdensome. Hee, hee!

Some more random thoughts of the insane--

Maybe all countries should eliminate old people because they certainly cost a lot more due to all of their health problems. Babies are pretty expensive, too, come to think of it. Kids are sick all the time and seem to get hurt a lot so I say do away with them, too! Evil children!

How about people with glasses?

People who get chronic sinus infections?

Cancer patients?

Women giving birth?

People with AIDS?

Drug addicts?

The mentally ill?

I guess it depends on what the true purpose of health care is--is there a moral angle to consider? Are there entire segments of people that should be "written off"?

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

I don't think it is unreasonable for any country to deny entry by an illegal or even someone entering legally when they will be tax dependent. If they won't follow the laws upon entering that country, why would they follow any of the other laws? Those who have been paying into the system their whole lives are being denied health care because they don't qualify for help while people who have never paid a dime in taxes are sucking it up.

Let them stay in their own country. Let their own country take care of them, the place where they paid taxes at one time. We aren't talking about someone's own citizens, we are talking about which countries should be taking in all those who are simply expensive.

I don't blame NZ. I wish the US would follow.

[transformer 1]

I hope ya'll realize I'm just playing devil's advocate here...he, he!

Wasa raises a good point--what about actual citizens in other countries where health care is free for all? How are people with serious health issues handled? Are there monetary limits to how much treatment is done? Does survival of the fittest come into play?

I'm curious because I never get to travel and have no clue about how health care systems work in other countries!

[pippinje 0]

I don't think it is unreasonable for any country to deny entry by an illegal or even someone entering legally when they will be tax dependent. If they won't follow the laws upon entering that country, why would they follow any of the other laws? Those who have been paying into the system their whole lives are being denied health care because they don't qualify for help while people who have never paid a dime in taxes are sucking it up.

Let them stay in their own country. Let their own country take care of them, the place where they paid taxes at one time. We aren't talking about someone's own citizens, we are talking about which countries should be taking in all those who are simply expensive.

I don't blame NZ. I wish the US would follow.

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[Jachut 487]

I hope ya'll realize I'm just playing devil's advocate here...he, he!

Wasa raises a good point--what about actual citizens in other countries where health care is free for all? How are people with serious health issues handled? Are there monetary limits to how much treatment is done? Does survival of the fittest come into play?

I'm curious because I never get to travel and have no clue about how health care systems work in other countries!

I feel as a taxpayer, within reason, I am entitled to whatever medical care I require. However I choose to pay private health insurance because I'm too much of a princess to have a baby in a public hospital when I could be sucking it up in a private one where I can have a private room, wine with my dinner, a private lactation consultant and put my baby in the nursery if I want to sleep. I want to choose my surgeon when I require surgery and my specialist for any other health problems and I want my health care right now, when it suits me and where it suits me.

But I'm entitled to what I need through the public system too. However - obesity and smoking and even tanning related illnesses, where do you draw the line? In Australia, obesity is on the rise because we are following the American culture, living a similar lifestyle, all new manner of canned crapola is hitting the supermarket shelves every week, we like fast food, beer and watch more sport than we play. Yet our kids are also being raised differently, its no longer safe to send them out from dawn to dusk to play or let them walk to school. Phys ed in schools is sometimes non existent. Parents need to work and cant do the after school sport thing, so those kids grow up fat. Is it their fault?

Here in Australia, the sun is so strong that most people have skin cancers removed within their lifetime. Most white Australians have considerable sun damage to their skin. Yet others insist on using tanning beds, possibly the most stupid, risky thing you could ever do to yourself, every bit as much a choice as smoking and then expect the public system to pick up the tab - where do you draw the line there?

Smoking, nobody has to do it. So if you get lung cancer should you be left high and dry?

If I break my ankle tonight playing basketball, is that my fault?

Fact is there's lifestyle factors at play in nearly every disease westerners suffer. Choices all along the line, by ourselves, by our parents and by our governments affect our health.

I dont worry about whether so and so next door deserves their open heart surgery. I'm just glad its there for everyone. But I dont see what's wrong with refusing entry to people whom you know are going to be a huge burden - because with someone who's gravely ill, not only are they a burden on the health system but probably unable to work and a burden on the welfare system as well. We have a responsibility to look after our own citizens, but we dont have a responsibility to take on even more liabilities.

[Steddy 0]

What is the required BMI for immigration? Does anyone know? I didn't see it in the article.

The basic premise actually makes sense to me, as upsetting as it must be for that couple.

Bumping -

I'd really like to know the required BMI for immigration to Australia also if anyone has any information.

Cheers

[Mellis 0]

I understand any country not wanting to be the "dumping ground" for all manner of health problems and issues--just because the health care is free.

but my question is this--why when anyone in the US says anything about illegal immigration and how much it is costing US--we are labeled as racist or bigotted? don't we have the same rights as any other country?

Mary

[transformer 1]

I don't have a problem with people immigrating to the U.S. as long as the people coming in follow the laws of our country. It would also be nifty if immigrants could make some attempt to assimilate into our wacky American culture like they used to in the "old days".

If I moved to Russia, for example, I wouldn't expect everyone else to feel sorry for me and learn English. I would learn Russian (or whatever dialect is spoken where I am going).

But, I digress from the topic at hand. Does anyone know how the "socialized" medical systems in other countries work? Do they really take care of everyone or is that just some noble ideal?

[skyeblu79 0]

I think the country has the right to let in who they want. I can understand where they are going from as far as the amount of $$ they would cost them. I just wonder what else isn't allowed allowed. Do they have to get a physical or they just look @ people and say oh they are fat they will cost us $$? Even though obesity is a big problem for them do people there not suffer from cancer, AIDS, and other illnesses? They shouldn't be let in either than. Those illnesses are definitely going to cost the country $$ where is obesity possibly could.

Personally, if it were me I just wouldn't move there. I think the option for universal medical care would be great here. I don't understand why the lady doesn't have the option for private insurance. If she can't show she can support herself she shouldn't be moving there in the 1st place.

[Chickie 15]

It works for us.

Admittedly, my experence with the "Public" system is limited because we also carry private cover (Like Jacqui, I am too much of a princess for public hospitals)

But the times we have had no choice but to use the public system it's been great. If we go to an ER, we are seen by a doctor within the hour. I can only think of one instance that it was over an hour's wait. And I was put into a room, in a bed to wait to see the Dr.

I know there can be fairly long waiting lists for operations if they are not urgent (at least in my state) But if you need open heart surgery tomorrow, you will likely get it tomorrow. If you get my meaning. But if you have private cover, provided your surgeon isn't too busy, you can have most operations done in very good time.

As for out patient treatment (specialists ect) I don't have much experence with that, because I have had private cover for pretty much my whole life, and have always dealt with private specialists. So I never had to wait at all for specialist treatment.

To see your GP, if you are a child, student, or elderly, you pay nothing. If you are a working adult, depending on your doctor, you pay a small "gap" of about $10-15. When you go to get your prescriptions, if you are low income, or elderly, medicine is about the $3 or $5 mark, and after the low income / elderly spend over $400 a year on medication, medication is free.

For everyone else, most medication is between $15 and $30.

The only thing that is not covered for everyone is dentistry. But if you have private cover, it is cover by that... So... For my tax dollars, it has it's faults, like any system, but it works.

[ingyrob 1]

We have the National Health Service in the UK and we think we are the National Health Service for the world. We have women from all over the world who come here to have their babies and people who come in with Aids and Tubercolosis. Our government will not turn them away. They say that having a baby is to be treated as an emergency and that to send people back to a country who can't treat Aids is against their Human Rights. We have just heard that hymen repair operations are being given to some women (mostly Muslim) and this at a time when older people cannot have drugs for Alzheimers, people have to lose the sight of one eye before they can have treatment for macular degeneration and people cannot get the medication to prolong their lives when they have cancer.

Treatment under the National Health Service is supposed to be free at the point of contact.

It does make one sick!!!!!!!!!!!