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Comment by devsquid | Hacker News Reader

The fact my nation is as wealthy as it is but it does not want to invest in the health of its people is insanity to me. Health insurance is essentially a bet that someone's health cost will be less than their monthly premium. Why would my country not take on that bet? It seems like something that would be way more effective if it was orchestrated on a national level. (ノಥ,_｣ಥ)ノ彡┻━┻

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Considering every single TV spot is selling us things to make us Fat or die sooner, I would not want to take the otherside of the bet against people getting sick.

Americans, we are all about freedom. Freedom to kill ourselves and eat twinkies. But we expect help when we are sick.

One side or the other has to budge a little. Do we give up being able to get the same insurance despite unhealthy habbits? Do we give up helping the poor and the sick?

This is why we need fact based research to understand these costs, and use a direct tax on those items to recoup those costs from those who engage in those risks.

Go skiing? Well there's a higher tax for the ticket because you have X% higher risk of breaking a leg. Twinkies right now are a grocery food so in fact it has less tax, where it probably should be taxed like booze or cigarettes (in effect a sin tax). Of course sin taxes get abused, where the money goes to the general fund rather than going to mitigation for the undesirable behavior.

Then what happens to diet soda? Likely not good for you but no calories. Tax free or same tax as normal cola?

I think for most things we are too stupid to really calculate the extranalaties of products.

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