Ray9
Diamond Member
- Jul 19, 2016
- 2,707
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While the democrats are wheeling out patients in wheelchairs to protest the republican healthcare plan reasonable people might want to consider the reality of healthcare costs and what we could really do to rein them in. First we must understand why so many people are so sick that they overwhelm our healthcare system. We don’t have to look far. The two biggest players in America’s poor health are Alcohol and tobacco.
Some expert estimates say that up to forty percent of US hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from the complications of alcohol use. Liver disease, liver cancer, cancer of the esophagus, heart disease, chronic brain wasting, auto accidents, you name it. That’s just alcohol. If you factor in tobacco use as well with its destruction to the heart and lungs you could probably account for seventy five percent of all the medical expenses in the country.
We know prohibition doesn’t work and we don’t need more taxes on these products but there is another way. We can put the burden of the staggering costs onto the users of alcohol and nicotine in a way that benefits them directly.
First we must take alcohol and tobacco products off the cash shelves in stores and require a special health card to purchase them. Then we must increase the cost of all alcohol and tobacco products by fifty percent. If a six pack of beer costs six dollars today it would increase to nine dollars. A pack of cigarettes costing nine dollars would increase to thirteen fifty. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that every cent of the extra money paid by the user would go into a health savings account in the user’s name that collects interest until the user develops the serious health issue that will surely come. We could call it the “User Healthcare Savings Account”.
This could actually work and the money would pile up in accounts all over the country to pay for the medical issues that are breaking us. And don’t worry about absurd arguments that it would discriminate against the poor. There is no “right” in the Constitution for a citizen to destroy his heart, his liver and his lungs.
You know what? This is direct way to use corporate America and the common citizen to attack the healthcare crisis together. It’s a way better plan than crooked politicians can think of.
Some expert estimates say that up to forty percent of US hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from the complications of alcohol use. Liver disease, liver cancer, cancer of the esophagus, heart disease, chronic brain wasting, auto accidents, you name it. That’s just alcohol. If you factor in tobacco use as well with its destruction to the heart and lungs you could probably account for seventy five percent of all the medical expenses in the country.
We know prohibition doesn’t work and we don’t need more taxes on these products but there is another way. We can put the burden of the staggering costs onto the users of alcohol and nicotine in a way that benefits them directly.
First we must take alcohol and tobacco products off the cash shelves in stores and require a special health card to purchase them. Then we must increase the cost of all alcohol and tobacco products by fifty percent. If a six pack of beer costs six dollars today it would increase to nine dollars. A pack of cigarettes costing nine dollars would increase to thirteen fifty. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that every cent of the extra money paid by the user would go into a health savings account in the user’s name that collects interest until the user develops the serious health issue that will surely come. We could call it the “User Healthcare Savings Account”.
This could actually work and the money would pile up in accounts all over the country to pay for the medical issues that are breaking us. And don’t worry about absurd arguments that it would discriminate against the poor. There is no “right” in the Constitution for a citizen to destroy his heart, his liver and his lungs.
You know what? This is direct way to use corporate America and the common citizen to attack the healthcare crisis together. It’s a way better plan than crooked politicians can think of.
