US: From the NYT:
The bills to provide drug benefits through Medicare that were passed by the House and the Senate last week offer some of the country’s largest employers a long-sought prize: shifting at least some of their burden of soaring drug costs to the federal government.
What happens when taxpayers don’t want to pay for grandma’s meds? Social Security is a Ponzi scheme that robs the young to pay the old. I’d like to keep more of my pretax income. I’m sure I won’t see my Social Security benefits, even if I can retire.
Federal drug benefits don’t address some causes of declining health, like overeating and a general lack of exercise. These benefits help corporations reduce their bottom line, help insurance companies increase their profits, and support a wonderland of pharmaceutical fixes.
Some prescription drugs work well and are necessary. Other medicines just mask the symptoms of poor life habits. Our health care problems will only get bigger as our population becomes older and fatter.
Why not divert these drug benefits to US farming? Why not invest in family farms that grow healthier food, so we can have more of it?
Congress can’t legislate fitness. They can encourage fitness by taxing sugar, transfats and tobacco, and refusing to export these habits to the rest of the world. We can teach children to live well, so that they don’t become blobs.
