Kaylee Rucker Summary/Response Essay English 102 February 13, 2017 Obesity Is A Personal Issue
Is obesity an issue of personal health choices or an issue that needs to be controlled by the government? Radley Balko, editor at Reason and columnist for FoxNews.com, discusses his thoughts on obesity in an article entitled “What You Eat Is Your Business.” Balko correctly claims that obesity is a problem of personal decision making, and the government attempting to control what foods consumers have access to is an ineffective solution. Balko discusses how people should be taught to make healthier choices, government should allow rewards for health, and obesity should be considered a private health issue.
In the article, Balko discusses the issues of obesity in America being considered a public problem. He believes health decisions and behavior are strictly up to each individual person, and the involvement of government is ineffective. Politicians, however, are considering intervening in the obesity issue. Balko explained, “Congress is now considering menu-labeling legislation, which would force restaurants to send every menu item to the laboratory for nutritional testing” (396). Balko does not believe this is the correct way to fight obesity. Each person needs to be held responsible for their own individual health habits. Politicians want federal control of health care, but the reality is that those politicians cannot control what each person decides to put in their body (396). That is a personal choice. Now healthy people who take responsibility for their own health are suffering through the cost of office visits and premiums because some other people don’t take that responsibility. Balko believes “public health” needs to become private again and that is the only way a nation of obesity will legitimately be fixed 397). Each person will more than likely make healthier choices when they’re the ones paying for the consequences, not others.
The government should not be trying to control what is available to consumers, but rather working to teach people how to make responsible, healthy choices. According to Balko, “...our government ought to be working to foster a sense of responsibility in and ownership of our own health and well-being. But we’re doing just the opposite” (396). Instead of trying to take away certain foods and drinks from schools, why not have choices and teach the students how to choose wisely? If a child never learns how to make responsible decisions, he or she is never going to be able to when given that choice. Healthy decision making has to start when young, or else, when these kids grow up, they won’t have a background on healthy decision making.
Obesity will continue to be an issue as long as people have no incentive to make healthy choices. Balko insists, “More and more, states are preventing private health insurers from charging overweight and obese clients higher premiums, which effectively removes any financial incentive for maintaining a healthy lifestyle” (396). As long as obesity is more of a financial issue for Americans as a whole and not for the individuals who obesity directly affects, then there will be no resolution. Balko’s theory that the government paying for items such as anti-cholesterol medication does not motivate people to make better choices is extremely useful because it sheds light on the difficult problem of obesity. Obesity will continue as long as it is considered a public health issue in these ways and not a personal one.
Health decisions are strictly personal, although the government is turning them into being public issues. Balko advocates, “The best way to alleviate the obesity “public health” crisis is to remove obesity from the realm of public health” (397). I fully agree with this statement. No government official can control what a person puts in their body; that is a personal choice. Therefore, the problem of obesity should be a personal one, not a public one. To do this, insurance companies must be allowed to reward individuals for good health and penalize individuals for chosen bad health. This will lead to better health choices if a person will have to pay for his or her poor decisions.
In conclusion, Radley Balko’s article, “What You Eat Is Your Business,” talks about how obesity, although the government considers it a public issue, is strictly private and relies on personal decisions. As long as the government continues to allow obesity to be a public issue, there will be no resolution. Individuals should be rewarded for healthy decisions not punished for the bad health decisions of others. Balko correctly discusses the importance of teaching children how to make healthy choices, allowing companies to reward people in good health, and making obesity a private health issue again.
Works Cited Graff, Gerald, et al. “What You Eat Is Your Business.” "They Say / I Say": the Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, with Readings, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2017, pp. 395–399.