This blog contains posts and comments written by students in Dr. Tufte's economics classes at Southern Utah University.
4/02/2007
Raise Taxes!
Raising taxes is a necessity if we are to fix health care. This is what many Democrats will say in order to justify their wants of raising taxes. Republicans have usually said that by raising taxes the economy will fall. So, how do we fix health care? In an article I read the author says that all we need to do is take the costs of health care that businesses pay, which is around 500 billion dollars a year, and let the government assume the responsibility of paying it. After that there needs to be a tax that is equal in amount to pay for the newly acquired debt. The author suggests that the government could impose taxes in various forms such as carbon taxes. The tax would also help environmentally as well. This plan simply shifts the cost of health care from businesses to the general public. This plan should actually help businesses because it is cutting a big portion of their total costs. This idea may seem quite crazy, but it is one that is being discussed even as we speak.
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2 comments:
This is a very interesting idea. Of course, this assumes that universal health care really is a good thing. That may not really be the case. Many countries with socialist health care systems (which is what this amounts to) face high costs (sound familiar?) and shortages due to over-utilization or scarcity. In the U.K., people can wait months for surgery or just to see a dentist. Many European countries have started moving toward market-based health care systems in order to fix the problems that have arisen from their universal health care systems. Our current health care system certainly needs attention, but I don't think universal health care is the answer.
What a poor idea. I don't want the government to be in charge of another thing for me. I don’t like it especially when it deals with my health. Because of competition health care continues to improve in quality. With the higher quality comes a price. This is the price that we pay. I believe there is a much better way to have health care than to have the government take care of it. We would soon see a large increase in the demand for health care and the quality would go down. Not what I would want to see.
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