A Simpler Approach to our Nation’s Health
and Healthcare
By CJ Cameron
The nation watched last week as the House voted in the most historically significant bit of legislation, but it is clear to many that the battle is far from over. Perhaps it’s not too late to step back and discuss the merits of a simpler approach to health care, especially as it relates to responsibility and taxation.
Responsibility, Prevention, and Taxation!
Before we receive rights and privileges in this country, I believe we–as individuals and as a country - must demonstrate responsibility, especially in the areas of disease prevention, health education, and maintaining a pure environment. Prevention, for instance, is an individual responsibility that begins before birth and involves bringing forth a healthy baby and nurturing the child into a thriving individual. Prevention carries into adulthood with keeping our own bodies fit and trim and educating our children to avoid unhealthy foods and the diseases the resulting obesity often spawns. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), most diseases do stem from diet-related abuses, and most states are now alarmingly obese.
In addition to personal responsibility, the government has its responsibility, namely to keep our air, water and land clean, and to censure the polluters. One way of censuring the irresponsible (and benefitting the responsible) is through a carefully conceived, thoughtful taxation structure.
Taxation
A fair taxation system will fund the national healthcare cost while encouraging citizens to adopt healthier lifestyles and businesses to implement environmentally friendly practices. Taxation should begin at the source of the production level. We should tax the manufactures of all unhealthy foods and beverages. Currently the cost of organic agricultural products is high, but by taxing manufacturers of pesticides and artificial fertilizers, the organic farmers will soon become more competitive in the marketplace. The consumers will automatically gravitate toward purchasing the organic products because they cost less, thus creating a healthier lifestyle.
Junk foods will also be taxed, resulting in a higher price for soda, chips, and the like. The junk consumer pays in advance for the future negative effects of those products to his or her health.
The taxes will fund “National Catastrophic Insurance,” which provides citizens with coverage for major accidents and illnesses without burdening us and the future generations with another trillion dollars of debt. It can also fund a pre-birth and early child development programs for future generations, as well as incentivize Individual Medical Savings Retirement accounts.
In summary, we need to prevent disease, take good care of ourselves, tax those who pollute our bodies, land, air and water, and use the funds generated to fund a simple, major medical plan for all. The free market will take care of the rest.
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Learn More
Take a look at the terrifying statistics on the CDC-created website:
Click Here
. Click on the PowerPoint called obesity_trends_2008.ppt and watch the colors get brighter and brighter on the various states, meaning higher and higher obesity rates every year. Here are just a few of the facts their study highlights:
• In 1990, among states participating in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, ten states had a prevalence of obesity less than 10% and no states had prevalence equal to or greater than 15%.
• By 1999, no state had prevalence less than 10%; eighteen states had a prevalence of obesity between 20-24%; and no state had prevalence equal to or greater than 25%.
• In 2008, only one state (Colorado) had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Thirty-two states had a prevalence equal to or greater than 25%; six of these states (Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia) had a prevalence of obesity equal to or greater than 30% (CDC, 2008).
Drink Polluters
Most people are choosing to walk in ignorance about what the bubbly is really doing to us. For instance, in a May 27, 2007 article, Caution: Some soft drinks may seriously harm your health, Martin Hickman published some scary facts uncovered by a British university. For example, they found that sodium benzoate, a common preservative found in drinks like Sprite and Dr. Pepper, “has the ability to switch off vital parts of DNA… lead to cirrhosis of the liver… Parkinson’s… hyperactivity in children…”
And yet, these products are still on the market, and still in our drinks! How can this be so?
Baby Fund
Another piece of our plan might include a baby fund, to which the whole nation can contribute. Just as a planted seed must be watered and nurtured, diligently climate-controlled, and fed correctly, so this “Baby Fund” will serve to nurture the new babies of our nation, until the child has developed a root system to stand on his own. The fund will take care of the baby for a year or two, serving to reduce the burden on society and make the U.S. a healthier nation.
Individual Medical Savings Retirement Account
A Medical Savings Retirement Account will deduct 10% of an individual’s income and place it into a personal account. This account will accumulate interest and provide for minor health concerns. The funds cannot be withdrawn for any other reason until retirement. Healthier consumers will not access their funds as much as the “junk consumers,” and will therefore retire richer.
