Hospital Will Not Hire Those Who Use Tobacco

[Aquila]

Any legal action against something like this will fail in our current climate. We need courts that are for the freedom of the individual... and it's slowly slipping away.

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by Ferd

Aquila, you suggested that corporate power is at an all time high. That is a false notion. Corporations are far more limited today than at anytime in history.

is there a shift back taking place? there is certainly a strong and ugly move by powerful people to work within the current framework to buy the influence of government. WE need to work to stop that.

but your intial comment was simply, historically wrong.

Where did I say corporate power as at an all time high?

[Dagwood]

Okay, okay...I'll admit. The policy is a little extreme. I've read through enough comments since my initial response and find myself re-thinking what I was thinking. I'm not afraid to admit that.

I'm for freedom beyond measure without interference. So, with that being said, I would consider raising a smoker's insurance rates even higher than they may already be. After all, damaging one's body does cost more than not, correct? At least in the long-term it would.

In times like these, we need to keep people employed before sending them home or, better yet, sending their job(s) overseas...

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by Dagwood

Okay, okay...I'll admit. The policy is a little extreme. I've read through enough comments since my initial response and find myself re-thinking what I was thinking. I'm not afraid to admit that.

I'm for freedom beyond measure without interference. So, with that being said, I would consider raising a smoker's insurance rates even higher than they may already be. After all, damaging one's body does cost more than not, correct? At least in the long-term it would.

In times like these, we need to keep people employed before sending them home or, better yet, sending their job(s) overseas...

So do you think insurance companies should raise the rates on a man who choose to eat a Big Mac during his lunch break over a Mc Salad? Or what if he drinks soda (big reason for obesity in the US) over water? Why must a free man who is no danger to anyone be beholden or enslaved to any entity?

Where is this CONTROL spirit coming from??? You see it on the right... give private entities power to crush the one who doesn't behave like we think he should. On the left... give the government power to crush the one who doesn't behave like we think he should.

What about... just allowing individual freedom without penalty? What about supporting laws that ensure that free men are treated equally?

A smoker is a free man, a fellow American. A non-smoker is a free man, a fellow American. If ABC Corp. doesn't want them smoking on corporate property... so be it. But to control them on their own time and in their own homes is tyranny. Yes, there are more serious instances of tyranny down through history. But tyranny is tyranny.

[Aquila]

Americans need to get ANGRY and kick this kind of thing in the teeth while it's just a small issue. Sure, it's a tollerable, cute little lion cub. But if you allow it to live and it will have you for dinner one day. A lion is a lion. Kill it.

[Dagwood]

Originally Posted by Aquila

So do you think insurance companies should raise the rates on a man who choose to eat a Big Mac during his lunch break over a Mc Salad? Or what if he drinks soda (big reason for obesity in the US) over water? Why must a free man who is no danger to anyone be beholden or enslaved to any entity?

Where is this CONTROL spirit coming from??? You see it on the right... give private entities power to crush the one who doesn't behave like we think he should. On the left... give the government power to crush the one who doesn't behave like we think he should.

What about... just allowing individual freedom without penalty? What about supporting laws that ensure that free men are treated equally?

A smoker is a free man, a fellow American. A non-smoker is a free man, a fellow American. If ABC Corp. doesn't want them smoking on corporate property... so be it. But to control them on their own time and in their own homes is tyranny. Yes, there are more serious instances of tyranny down through history. But tyranny is tyranny.

Evidently, you're not in the health care industry earning a living. Evidently, you don't see the aspect of my rates being raised and healthcare level remaining the same, to pay in part for those who choose to damage themselves. I don't smoke. Never have and certainly don't intend on changing that.

We can get so caught up in freedom, freedom, freedom to the point we become selfish in the process. So, yes, raise the rates on those who choose to damage their bodies. I could benefit from it since I don't smoke myself, therefore allowing me to pay for my children's health care issues that are far more pressing than mine. I've had my fair share of seeing how health care is so one-sided but I'm tired of being the victim of other people's downright selfishness in having the choice to what they feel. I'm already a victim of the government needlessly taking tax dollars to pay for the single mother raising 4, 5, or 6 kids without a father in the picture. Or, if there is a father in the picture, he's driving a 50k dollar Escalade or Benz while I'm sitting back trying to pay for my daughter's health issues that are far more pressing than a welfare child whose mom or shack-up boyfriend take their mutual offspring to the doctor for a simple runny nose...

[houston]

Originally Posted by Amanah

smoking, drinking, and unhealthy eating habits are among the things that should be made socially unacceptable

Nein! Nein! Nein!

[AreYouReady?]

I worked in a hospital for nearly 20 years.

I treated patients with respiratory illnesses. It is not a pretty site to watch people suffocate to death because of what tobacco has done to their lungs. You can see the panicked look in their eyes as they try to breathe in and out. I encountered many who would rather breathe than eat.

While we all want the freedom to do as we please, where is the line drawn to when one's right infringes upon another's right? Does another have the right to blow smoke in a nonsmoker's face? Must a nonsmoker breathe the smell of smoke on another's clothes after they finish their ciggie?

I've been on both sides of this barrel. I used to smoke when I was a teenager and young adult. It was the thing to do when I was growing up in the environment I lived in. A 2 1/2 pack a day smoker, my left lung collapsed at the age of 23 that I attributed to smoking. I did not know God then, but I begged Him to help me quit smoking, then my lung collapsed. It was spending 7 days hooked up to a vacuum that allowed me to quit this terrible habit. That was the best thing that happened to me because I do not believe that I would be living at my age right now had I continued to smoke.

We all want our freedoms, but many Americans have proven that they cannot handle freedom. It is abused all in of the physical sense, spiritual sense and moral sense.

We are going to lose all our freedoms because we as a nation handle our freedoms recklessly. We lost our pathways to God because of "good times" entertainment, television and the "me first" attitudes.

The only answer to the freedoms we are losing is for Christ's return to straighten the mess that man has made on this planet out.

[Digging4Truth]

Much of this thread is a lesson is where the American mind is right now... and it is full out scary.

[Nitehawk013]

Yep.

I do not smoke. I think it is gross and unhealthy. Do I have the right to tell others they can't smoke? Not unless they are in my home I don't.

It is sad that we so rarely value liberty nowadays. Smoling is not illegal. If one wishes to smoke in their own home, ti si their right to do so. Companies have no business IMO sticking their noses into employees private lives unless the activity is illegal.

Hopefull some smoking employees get together and sue this hospital into oblivion over descriminatory practices.