Fat Smokers Beware

Health Care Company That Fired Smokers Also Targeting Fat:

"Weyers Won't Fire Employees For Obesity

POSTED: 10:20 am EST January 27, 2005

A Michigan health care company that fired four employees for smoking is also targeting fat.
Howard Weyers, the founder of Weyco Inc., said he wants to tell fat workers to lose weight or else, Reuters reported."

This bullshit is way out of hand. No company should be able to dictate lifestyle, especially when it happens on personal time, like at home. If this company is allowed to get away with firing smokers, it will open the door for firing people for a much broader range of lifestyle choices.
Take for example, the fact they now want to 'discriminate' against overweight people. And I call it discrimination, because that's what it is. They say they don't want to bear the burden of the costs associated with unhealthy living. They're an insurance company, they know how to charge higher premiums for higher risk groups. Or cancel the coverage completely. But to fire them? Wrong. In so many ways. Wrong.

My question is this: Where do we draw the line?
Tobacco has been know as unhealthy for forever. Insurance companies charge higher premiums for tobacco users. I'm not surprised. It's a higher risk category, just like a teenage driver is a higher risk category than a 40 year old mother of three.
But so is booze. Alcohol has been known to be bad for health for years. It's also bad for driving, but that's a whole 'nuther scenario.
Let's hash out a few other 'unhealthy' things you can do. Let's add fried foods. How about salt? Dairy products? Red meat? Bungee jumping? ATV's? Indiscriminate sex? Not that any of them are necessarily unhealthy in limited quantites, but how much is tolerable according to the insurance nazis?
These are all things that could 'damage' you to where the company has to pay out a bunch of money for hospital bills if you overindulge.

What's next? Do you have to sign a waiver upon getting hired stating you will not smoke, drink, eat french fries, ride your motorcycle, screw without a condom or hang the Christmas lights using a ladder?

The government has too many laws 'protecting' us already, and now the insurance companies are chiming in.
I'm really getting sick of this shit.