Paying taxes can only act as an incentive for governments to keep the population healthy if it costs them less than they'll get from that person in taxes - so i

Paying taxes can only act as an incentive for governments to keep the population healthy if it costs them less than they'll get from that person in taxes - so if you're old, retired, or not able-bodied enough to work, well... (This kinda resembles how the NHS in the UK decides what treatments to fund if you squint, though that's not the official justification.) There's also a lot of pressure to fund treatments of dubious effectiveness for high-profile diseases like cancer which politicians tend to give into because they care about being re-elected, whilst unglamorous but quality-of-life affecting stuff like physical therapy gets deprioritized.