I’ve been studying health and nutrition like crazy lately. Every time I study nutrition I’m always amazed how many health issues are diet related. For the sake of argument let’s say that 50% of our national health expenditure is solely based on issues that would not occurred if diet was better. I feel that’s conservative by the way; probably higher than that. As a conservative I feel that if people hurt themselves then they should have to pay for the results not society. But, just for fun, I’ll pretend like I’m a liberal and that I want the government to take care of it since people are all too willing to hurt themselves.

One of the main concerns with universal complete health care is the cost. How in the world do you pay for such a thing? Well I have an interesting partial solution that has the added benefit of acting as preventative medicine as well.

Here’s my plan:

· Pay for 55% the health care budget by taxes and tariffs on products that are known to cause “diseases of civilization.” There is some disagreement over what those products would consist of, but at the minimum those items should include products with fructose in them and gluten in them. Then you could do smaller taxes on things like skim milk, where they are removing fat soluble vitamins, or items that screw up our omega 6 / 3 balance like vegetable oils.

· Remove subsidies on products known to cause “diseases of civilization.”

· Subsidize products that are healthy like vegetables and pastured meats using 5% of the health care budget, which is paid for by the unhealthy guys.

This plan does several things. First off it shows the true costs of eating bad foods since the real total cost will be more fully seen in the food prices. Second, it will pay for the care of people who have eaten badly in the past. Third it will discourage people from eating foods that will hurt them hopefully lowering health care costs in the future.