3 ms·

I totally agree with your point, but it is very hard for the US to implement healthcare like in Europe. There are things like sugar tax in Europe, why? Because

I totally agree with your point, but it is very hard for the US to implement healthcare like in Europe. There are things like sugar tax in Europe, why? Because the governments spent so much money on health care. Corporations selling tasty but unhealthy food is profiting from part of the tax payer's money. In Japan, the system works because people are generally healthier. In Europe, the system works because the governments are willing to pay the bill in the first place, then tax the unhealthy food industries to make the system more efficient towards systems like Japan. In the US, it's pretty different because corporations have larger influences than in Europe. Also, there are a lot of people who won't give up unhealthy foods -- It basically boils down to personal preferences to be healthy or not in the US, while In Europe it's a little bit obligated to be healthy because it's costing tax payer's money.

mytherin 7y ago
While unhealthy individuals cost the health care system more early on in their life, healthy individuals tend to cost more in the long run because individuals live longer and thus require more treatment [1, 2]. In fact, one could argue unhealthy people are better for universal health care and universal retirement systems because they collect less retirement while still generally dying after age 65~70 (after having stopped working and having paid the maximum amount of money into these systems through taxes and retirement savings). [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/03/22/alcohol-obesity-and-smoking-do-not-cost-health-care-systems-money/#710d8dc164aa https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/03/22/alcohol-... [2] https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050029 https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/jo...

mytherin 7y ago

While unhealthy individuals cost the health care system more early on in their life, healthy individuals tend to cost more in the long run because individuals live longer and thus require more treatment [1, 2]. In fact, one could argue unhealthy people are better for universal health care and universal retirement systems because they collect less retirement while still generally dying after age 65~70 (after having stopped working and having paid the maximum amount of money into these systems through taxes and retirement savings). [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/03/22/alcohol-obesity-and-smoking-do-not-cost-health-care-systems-money/#710d8dc164aa https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/03/22/alcohol-... [2] https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050029 https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/jo...