Man "too fat" to be allowed to live in New Zealand

[TallanKhan]

At the end of the day the man is obese, and while I'm all in favour of personal choice (the idea of governments telling people what they can and can't eat is abhorrent to me), personal choice should always be balanced with personal accountability. Part of being personally accountable for your choices is accepting that they have consiquences. In this instance the man in question has chosen to pursue a deeply unhealthy lifestyle and New Zealand has decided that this would make him an unaccpetable burden to the country.

I think the decision was not only reasonable but right.

 

[TotalerKrieger]

So apparently this is why universal healthcare is soo much better. If the state deems that your health is too much of a drain on their resources they just force you to move out. Instead of just being denied treatment you get denied treatment, your place to live, and your livelihood. Yes, much better.

The rest of the developed world quietly pities you Americans when it comes to the state of your health care system, then we read things like this and realize that it is entirely your own fault.

You can scoff and make false accusations all you like, citizens of the other 29 OECD nations are, for the most part, very content with our evil socialist healthcare systems. Only fringe libertarian parties call for the dismantling of these public institutions, it would be political suicide for anyone else to push similar policy. Enjoy spending more tax dollars per capita on an inferior system all just to show big guv'ment and those dirty commies who's boss, dude. Here's a map showing all the other countries who have chosen to abandon the golden halls of private healthcare to some degree.

 

[Abomination]

Funny thing about that 30% obesity in New Zealand... it's actually caused by our immigration policy itself.

See, immigrants from the Pacific Islands such a Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Islands have a far easier time getting into New Zealand. How easy? We have a QUOTA we are required to meet before we can deny them.

What demographics in New Zealand have the greatest proportion of obese members? Pacific Islanders. How high is the proportion? I think it's up to 1 in 2 now.

So excuse New Zealand for being stringent with its health requirements for immigration.

 

[asinann]

So apparently this is why universal healthcare is soo much better. If the state deems that your health is too much of a drain on their resources they just force you to move out. Instead of just being denied treatment you get denied treatment, your place to live, and your livelihood. Yes, much better.

He wasn't native to the country, the US wouldn't have even let him in in the first place.

 

[Xenite]

This is the problem with socialized medicine, the consequences of your actions are no longer your own.

Yes, but thankfully in America people are free to beg for money in their place of work so that they can afford to be treated for surgery that will prevent them from being crippled and incapable of doing their job. So much better.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.297874-Extra-Credits-Artist-Amazed-at-Fan-Support

Yeah that's if you are of some notoriety. For the other 50 million Americans with no health insurance our system basically tells them to piss off and die.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

So apparently this is why universal healthcare is soo much better. If the state deems that your health is too much of a drain on their resources they just force you to move out. Instead of just being denied treatment you get denied treatment, your place to live, and your livelihood. Yes, much better.

He wasn't native to the country, the US wouldn't have even let him in in the first place.

We let in that **** Piers Morgan, so I'm pretty sure the US will let just about anyone come here.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

So apparently this is why universal healthcare is soo much better. If the state deems that your health is too much of a drain on their resources they just force you to move out. Instead of just being denied treatment you get denied treatment, your place to live, and your livelihood. Yes, much better.

The rest of the developed world quietly pities you Americans when it comes to the state of your health care system, then we read things like this and realize that it is entirely your own fault.

You can scoff and make false accusations all you like, citizens of the other 29 OECD nations are, for the most part, very content with our evil socialist healthcare systems. Only fringe libertarian parties call for the dismantling of these public institutions, it would be political suicide for anyone else to push similar policy. Enjoy spending more tax dollars per capita on an inferior system all just to show big guv'ment and those dirty commies who's boss, dude. Here's a map showing all the other countries who have chosen to abandon the golden halls of private healthcare to some degree.

First and foremost, the US does NOT have an entirely private health system, despite what you may have been told. In addition to Medicaid and Medicare, it is law that if you show up at a hospital in the US, they HAVE to take care of you, whether you have $1 in your bank account or $1 million. The biggest argument that most people make is that having a hybrid private/public system is actually significantly worse than going all the way public or all the way private.

Second, is your argument "well everyone else is doing it, therefore it must be a good idea"? Think, historically, about all the myriad of ideas that were accepted throughout the world and how little that had to do with whether they ended up being correct or not. Slavery, a flat earth, the sun revolves around the earth, eugenics, divine mandate, imperialism. All those ideas were accepted and implemented by the "civilized" nations of the world, but I'd hardly say tht made them correct in the long run.

 

[ThreeName]

In other news, you have to be healthy to become a citizen of another country.

Move the fuck along.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

This is the problem with socialized medicine, the consequences of your actions are no longer your own.

Yes, but thankfully in America people are free to beg for money in their place of work so that they can afford to be treated for surgery that will prevent them from being crippled and incapable of doing their job. So much better.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.297874-Extra-Credits-Artist-Amazed-at-Fan-Support

Yeah that's if you are of some notoriety. For the other 50 million Americans with no health insurance our system basically tells them to piss off and die.

Yes, except that the "50 million" statistic is BS.

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/03/20/the-myth-of-the-46-million

 

[TotalerKrieger]

First and foremost, the US does NOT have an entirely private health system, despite what you may have been told. In addition to Medicaid and Medicare, it is law that if you show up at a hospital in the US, they HAVE to take care of you, whether you have $1 in your bank account or $1 million. The biggest argument that most people make is that having a hybrid private/public system is actually significantly worse than going all the way public or all the way private.

Fair enough, I am certainly not going to argue that the US lacks all elements of universal healthcare. My focus was not to attack the US system but defend the publically funded systems of other developed nations. If Americans don't want universal healthcare, that is your choice. At the end of the day, the only people who truly care about the US healthcare system are Americans. I just get tired of hearing about how flawed our public systems are. Healthcare reform may be an major issue in the US but its really a done-deal in the rest of the developed world.

Second, is your argument "well everyone else is doing it, therefore it must be a good idea"? Think, historically, about all the myriad of ideas that were accepted throughout the world and how little that had to do with whether they ended up being correct or not. Slavery, a flat earth, the sun revolves around the earth, eugenics, divine mandate, imperialism. All those ideas were accepted and implemented by the "civilized" nations of the world, but I'd hardly say tht made them correct in the long run.

Conversely, one could argue that good ideas are widely adopted. Child labour laws, the rule of law, democracy, the scientific method, the separation of church and state, etc. The point of my post was that the developed nations who have adopted universal healthcare continue to support this decision and enjoy a very high standard of healthcare which meets or surpasses that of the US. This suggests that universal healthcare is not as bad as many Americans are lead to believe. I would say that human beings in general dislike taxation, so if our publically funded systems didn't work all that well, we would have axed them long ago.

 

[lunavixen]

The one thing i'd like to know is why he didn't apply for permanent citizenship in that six years instead of having visas? I think he could have got it. One thing people seem to forget is the hours that chefs work, my brother is a chef and has worked up to 14 hours in a day, that doen't leave a lot of time for exercise, especially when there are few/no 24 hour gyms in the area. The man in wuestion looks to be in his late forties, maybe early fifties, adding that to being in a higher weight range, that puts him at a much higher risk of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes etc. Which are all costly to treat, I'm not saying that it's a good thing that his visa was not renewed, i'm just saying that a lot of things contribute to these issues.

 

[Korolev]

Quite a few nations have these policies. If they think that a potential migrant will have a detrimental impact on the health services, then they will be refused entry. Australia used to have a similar policy on HIV positive individuals - if you were HIV positive, you couldn't be allowed in. I think the Australian government may have gotten rid of that rule, but I'm not sure.

 

[HoneyVision]

Is it the fault of the NZ government that they don't want one more unhealthy person leeching off their funds?

 

[Something Amyss]

Is it the fault of the NZ government that they don't want one more unhealthy person leeching off their funds?

Well, it's their desire, their policy. That kind of is the definition of "their fault."

 

[HoneyVision]

Is it the fault of the NZ government that they don't want one more unhealthy person leeching off their funds?

Well, it's their desire, their policy. That kind of is the definition of "their fault."

Never EVER misuse the word "desire".

It's the NZ policy, yes. NZ is broke as fuck, the last thing they need is more another person who needs the sick benefit. NZ's health care system is VERY generous and readily available to any resident/citizen. Compared to other 1st world countries out health care is extremely affordable, a lot of which is even free. Loads of things are subsidized at the cost of the government, so I don't blame them for declining this fellow.

 

[Yan007]

Is it the fault of the NZ government that they don't want one more unhealthy person leeching off their funds?

Well, it's their desire, their policy. That kind of is the definition of "their fault."

He/She probably meant that it would be unjust to fault/blame a country for having certain policies in place.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

Unless he's like 5'5" or less, 286 isn't that fat. I mean yeah it's still pretty obese, probably even classified as morbidly obese, but there are people in the US and the UK who are over 300 and even 500 pounds. So yeah he's pretty fat, but there are much fatter people. And I find it hard to believe there's nobody in New Zealand over 300 pounds.

That's like saying, "Sure, that guy died of natural causes, but that guy got cut into a million pieces by a chainsaw, so he's way more dead." I don't really think they were going for a scale of one to ten on how fat he was, just that he was fat.

Although, it's more likely that they just had concerns about his health, since fat people tend to be unhealthy people.

 

[Wickatricka]

Sounds alright to me. If they don't want fat people in their country then who are we to argue with them? Just wish america did this too