If voters back such steps for their own health, of course, that's one thing. But to claim they're essential to save taxpayers bucks gets the logic backward -- because, again, without nationalized health care, there'd be no nationalized costs. Folks would make their own choices -- and just pay the consequences.
Actually, sin-taxers understand this. By slapping levies on soda and cigs, they're implicitly telling folks: You can consume these products and possibly drive up health-care costs, as long as you're willing to pay the tax.
But why only soda and cigs? What about ice cream, Chinese food, salted pretzels -- laziness? Why not tax TV and Web time? (Not to give anyone ideas.)
Economist Gerald Prante goes further, asking: Rather than taxing fattening foods, why not tax obesity itself? Taxpayers could declare their height and weight on their 1040s, and pay an "obesity tax" based on the resulting Body Mass Index.
And no reason to stop there. If the goal is to make each of us pay the health costs linked to our own indulgences, there's a more efficient way to do it: Simply make everyone pay his own medical bills -- and scrap nationalized health care altogether.
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I support health insurance rates having four primary rate categories: Base, Surcharge/Smoking, Surcharge/Obesity, and Surcharge/Drugs/Excessive Alcohol.
All numbers are approximate:
The employer should pay 2/3 of base, employees 1/3 of base and 100% of surcharges. Surcharges should be capped at 100% of base, so that insurance will be in reach of fat smokers who drink too much.
A simple urine and blood test at enrollment along with measurement of height/weight ought to do the trick. Just like life insurance. People stuck with surcharges should be able to retest annually, at their own expense, to remove said surcharge.
This is really a libertarian approach.
I also support "sin taxes". Cigarette taxes have shown the effectiveness of this approach. The market mechanism is extremely powerful and should be used to these ends. Ultimately, they are voluntary taxes, which are superior to mandatory taxes, no?
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