(an oxymoron if ever I heard one)
Or maybe it was a Government Sponsored
Focus Group Initiative or maybe
It was a Senate Sub-Committee
Whatever: people were given money
To come up with this idea -
Let's tax fat people and smokers more
Because of the extra burden they place
On our strapped-for-cash healthcare system
I thought: what about those who play sport?
Our emergency departments are full
Of skateboarders with broken ankles
Footballers with dislocated shoulders
Netballers with torn cruciate ligaments
Popped kneecaps, ruptured hamstrings
Cyclists with broken wrists and lacerations
Tennis players with tennis elbow
Badminton players with badminton forearm
Broken feet, heart attack, heat stroke
Soccer players who need knee reconstruction
Exercise clearly puts the exerciser
In what doctors call 'a high risk category'
Similar to all those smokers and fatties
True: most sporty types have better outcomes
Earn enough to have private health insurance
And are more motivated to fully recover
This is what separates them from those
Among us who have made bad lifestyle choices
Smokers and fatties cost the system
Sports injuries make money for the system
But in the end, we are all short of breath
Whether you jog 10k a day
Or smoke a pack a day
We all exit the same way
Because life, after all
Is the most common cause of death.
© shaun patrick green 2013
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