Mike Hudack

Hi. I'm Mike Hudack and this is my Tumblr. I'm a high school dropout, the CEO of blip.tv and a former warblogger. Also check out the blip.tv blog.

Silly Me

jeffmiller:

robot-heart-politics:

““Well, we’re all different. Why should a smoker pay more?””

—

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), when asked “Why should a woman pay more than a man [for health premiums]?” (via ohfortheloveofdog)

I guess I’ll have to remember the next time I’m born to select the y chromosome option. Silly me, making the choice to be a woman!

Why should I have to pay for contact lenses?  I didn’t choose to have bad eyesight.

Why should I have to pay for restaurant food?  I didn’t choose to be hungry.

Why should I have to pay my taxes?  I didn’t choose to be born in this country.

Why should I have to buy health insurance under Obama’s plan?  I didn’t choose Obama to be President.

Silly me.  I’ve been paying for services based upon things like their market value.[1]  This value is set by things like supply and demand.  And these things are driven by things like cost and utility.

From now on, I’m not going to pay for things that I didn’t choose.  (“Hey Mr. Umbrella man—hand one over.  I didn’t choose for it to rain!”)

—

1.  Or sometimes, because the government makes me buy it even if I don’t want it.

The reality is that there are cost differentials on a number of variables. It’s socially acceptable to pass some of those differentials on to consumers, but not others. You can’t charge someone more for health insurance because they’re a woman or because they’re gay. But you can charge smokers more.

Society has decided to make gay people and women protected classes. For all sorts of (mostly good) reasons. Society has decided to make the opposite decision about smokers for all sorts of (mostly good) reasons.

Deal with it.

Notes about this post from the Tumblr community:

  1. sds reblogged this from jeffmiller
  2. tylerhwillis reblogged this from mikehudack and added:
    basically boil down...choice in my book....man or woman,...
  3. robot-heart-politics reblogged this from jeffmiller and added:
    do is automatically...higher insurance premium because you need glasses. And in fact,
  4. krystalgomez reblogged this from winstonwolfe and added:
    Agreed. And I’ve always wondered about the haircut thing. Isn’t there a way to achieve the stated goal more effectively?...
  5. mikehudack reblogged this from caterpillarcowboy and added:
    This is a key example. African Americans...heart disease but are not, to my knowledge,...
  6. mikehudack reblogged this from winstonwolfe and added:
    I’m not a fan of the slippery slope argument. Jeff: what I’m saying is that certain risk premiums for protected classes...
  7. caterpillarcowboy reblogged this from winstonwolfe and added:
    This doesn’t happen already? Aren’t African-Americans more at risk for heart disease? Don’t older people have higher...
  8. jeffmiller reblogged this from robot-heart-politics and added:
    But you agree, at least, that I shouldn’t have to pay for the glasses....But you must...
  9. winstonwolfe reblogged this from jeffmiller and added:
    So will it be okay if the government decides to charge African-American men/women more than Caucasian men/women? What if...
  10. jeffmiller reblogged this from mikehudack and added:
    Mike … if women are being charged more for health insurance premiums, it isn’t because they are women. It’s because the...
  11. laurakelly00 reblogged this from robot-heart-politics and added:
    your insurance premium,...
  12. robot-heart-politics reblogged this from jeffmiller and added:
    You can always choose the less expensive option—glasses....You can always choose the less...
  13. mikehudack reblogged this from jeffmiller and added:
    The reality is that there are cost differentials on a number of variables. It’s socially acceptable to pass some of...
  14. heroicdestinysquad reblogged this from robot-heart-politics
  15. jeffmiller reblogged this from robot-heart-politics and added:
    Why should I have to pay for contact lenses? I didn’t choose to have bad eyesight. Why should I have to pay for...
  16. greaterthanlapsed reblogged this from robot-heart-politics
  17. laurakelly00 reblogged this from robot-heart-politics
  18. thatsloverly reblogged this from robot-heart-politics