INADDITION TO RESTUCTURING THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM WE SHOULD ALSO consider using a negative feedback mechanism to resolve the health care crisis. What would happen to health care costs if insurance companies didn't have to pay for fat related diseases for people who were 20% over their recommended body weight? That would include heart transplanted by-pass operations and many cancers. What if we use revenue from a Fat Tax on burgers, fries, packages of butter and margarine and any other processed food which consisted of more than 30% of calories by fat to pay those costs? People would have to pay more for those foods and so would be discouraged from eating them. The money for caring for the disease would come from what is recognized as the primary source of the primary source of the disease. If health insurance companies didn't have to pay for treatments for those diseases in that 20% overweight group, health care costs would plummet. Moreover, rising health care costs would not be a problem: They would now be the solution because the relationship triggers a negative feedback mechanism. As costs went up the Fat Tax would have to be raised. People would eat less and less garbage. All we could afford would be fruits and vegetables. The health of Americans would dramatically improve. Our nation's health care bill would become quite manageable. This approach makes sense. The source of the problem, runaway costs, is due to the occurrence of the disease. Dealing with the problem at other levels helps but the leverage point, the point of impact is the disease source. If we used a Smoke Tax to pay for lung cancer treatments for smokers, combined with a Fat Tax to pay for fat related diseases, and an Alcohol Tax to pay for alcohol related diseases the health care crisis would be resolved.
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