on January 27, 2010 9:21 PM
I was watching the State of the Union address tonight, and at one point during the speech Obama said he was open to other ideas, and looked over at the Republicans and said something like "where are they?"
Personally, I'm tried of this whole Democrat vs. Republican bullshit. They all need to be tarred and feathered and run out of town, but I digress ...
I personally believe about 90% of what the Federal Government does is not only unnecessary, but unconstitutional as well, but let's just assume for a moment that the government can be involved in the delivery of any service it wants to get involved in, and put those concerns aside. Furthermore let's assume a "progressive" policy is just hunkydory, and it's ok for the government to nanny us.
Let's stop worrying about health care, and worry about health. Subsidizing health care insurance is in reality subsidizing insurance companies, and why in the hell would we want to do that?
I propose that we start subsidizing people's actual health instead. Let's get people involved in their health. We're a nation of fatties, let's encourage people to lose weight. (Even better would be to encourage people not to get fat in the first place.) Let's reward people for making good choices.
In addition, let's discourage people from making bad choices, choices which make us unhealthy.
How would we do that?
If you tax something, you get less of it. If you subsidize it, you get more of it.
There's a lot that could be done, and the specifics can be left to someone else to come up with, as far as I'm concerned, but here's a few.
Subsidize:
Weight loss
Healthy foods
Exercise facilities
Maybe throw some tax credits to employers for giving employees time during the work day to exercise.
Running shoes
Tax:
Fast food
Trans fats
High-fructose corn syrup (stop subsiding corn production while we're at it)
Tobacco
Laziness
Obviously there would still be sick people, but we could make a big dent in avoidable illnesses that cost us all.
While I'm at it. Let's tax people that waste health care resources, and reward those who use them judiciously but not to the point that we discourage the truly sick from seeking care, or we encourage people to skip checkups.
Personally, I'm tried of this whole Democrat vs. Republican bullshit. They all need to be tarred and feathered and run out of town, but I digress ...
I personally believe about 90% of what the Federal Government does is not only unnecessary, but unconstitutional as well, but let's just assume for a moment that the government can be involved in the delivery of any service it wants to get involved in, and put those concerns aside. Furthermore let's assume a "progressive" policy is just hunkydory, and it's ok for the government to nanny us.
Let's stop worrying about health care, and worry about health. Subsidizing health care insurance is in reality subsidizing insurance companies, and why in the hell would we want to do that?
I propose that we start subsidizing people's actual health instead. Let's get people involved in their health. We're a nation of fatties, let's encourage people to lose weight. (Even better would be to encourage people not to get fat in the first place.) Let's reward people for making good choices.
In addition, let's discourage people from making bad choices, choices which make us unhealthy.
How would we do that?
If you tax something, you get less of it. If you subsidize it, you get more of it.
There's a lot that could be done, and the specifics can be left to someone else to come up with, as far as I'm concerned, but here's a few.
Subsidize:
Weight loss
Healthy foods
Exercise facilities
Maybe throw some tax credits to employers for giving employees time during the work day to exercise.
Running shoes
Tax:
Fast food
Trans fats
High-fructose corn syrup (stop subsiding corn production while we're at it)
Tobacco
Laziness
Obviously there would still be sick people, but we could make a big dent in avoidable illnesses that cost us all.
While I'm at it. Let's tax people that waste health care resources, and reward those who use them judiciously but not to the point that we discourage the truly sick from seeking care, or we encourage people to skip checkups.
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