09 September 2009
Your Health is Everything
My Dad has always said, “Your health is everything.” Apparently, Martin Feldstein has a different idea. In his op-ed article in the September 8, 2009 Wall Street Journal, “ObamaCare’s Crippling Deficits,” he advocates abandoning health care reform in order to save the dollar from inflation and devaluation.
A healthy American economy is not possible if it is built on a largely unhealthy citizenry. The taxes that President Obama suggests will pay for universal health insurance will never be imposed for (dare I say it) less compelling reasons like reducing other projected federal budget deficits. Moreover, a healthier America will be more competitive in world markets and reap richer rewards.
Making health care affordable for everyone will require not only government subsidies but also improvement of its cost-effectiveness by emphasizing and incentivizing general practitioners, as well as by controlling the impact of medical liability suits. The high cost of reforming health care should be understood as an investment in our society’s future. We can pay for it with increased levies on high-income individuals and corporate foreign profits, or with the higher insurance premiums that now cover our inefficient health care system. Both sources are taxes in essence; but if properly structured to transform the behavior of consumers and providers, the former may actually result in reducing the expense of sustaining the nation’s physical well-being.
My Dad has always said, “Your health is everything.” Apparently, Martin Feldstein has a different idea. In his op-ed article in the September 8, 2009 Wall Street Journal, “ObamaCare’s Crippling Deficits,” he advocates abandoning health care reform in order to save the dollar from inflation and devaluation.
A healthy American economy is not possible if it is built on a largely unhealthy citizenry. The taxes that President Obama suggests will pay for universal health insurance will never be imposed for (dare I say it) less compelling reasons like reducing other projected federal budget deficits. Moreover, a healthier America will be more competitive in world markets and reap richer rewards.
Making health care affordable for everyone will require not only government subsidies but also improvement of its cost-effectiveness by emphasizing and incentivizing general practitioners, as well as by controlling the impact of medical liability suits. The high cost of reforming health care should be understood as an investment in our society’s future. We can pay for it with increased levies on high-income individuals and corporate foreign profits, or with the higher insurance premiums that now cover our inefficient health care system. Both sources are taxes in essence; but if properly structured to transform the behavior of consumers and providers, the former may actually result in reducing the expense of sustaining the nation’s physical well-being.
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