Passage 1

The proposal aims to encourage people to be healthy.If this new idea in America becomes a law, people who are overweight could suffer financially too.The US State of Arizona wants to charge overweight citizens $50 annually if they fail to follow their doctors’ advice. People with children or who are overweight because they suffer from a medical condition would be spared from the punishment.If the idea is approved by the Congress, smokers and diabetics who fail to stick to a healthy lifestyle will also have to pay.Medicaid, the organization which provides healthcare to the poor in the USA, costs the government $339 billion a year. Monica Coury, assistant director at Arizona’s Medicaid programmer, said that this proposal would ask people to give something back.She said that Arizona would take a carrot and stick (胡萝卜加大棒) approach to the problem. As well as punishing people who go against their doctors’ wishes, incentives would be offered for following advice, possibly a keep-fit video.Arizona’s senator Kyrsten Sinema has not backed the plans, saying that there isn’t a system to decide whether someone is or isn’t following medical advice. Other critics claim that people don’t need the government to look after them; if they want to be fat and smoke, the ‘nanny state’ shouldn’t try to stop them.Wes Benedict of the Libertarian Party said, “If you want to save the state money … cut Medicaid across the board, but don’t single out overweight people and smokers.”