New York magazine interviews Dr. Jack Kevorkian about health care reform. He doesn’t much like the new scenario, and has some thoughts of his own: “Everybody should pay for health care, and therefore you should tax everybody a little, and the fairest way is to tax profits. So that if a person has more money one year over the last year, then he pays ten percent of that excess. So that everybody pays equally. And all the corporations and everybody pays that way.” Kevorkian also weighs in on the state of Detroit (“a dying city, if it’s not already dead”) and the “not very rosy” future of the planet. Verdict: not an optimistic man. [%comments]
Dr. Kevorkian on Health Care
TAGS: health care
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Why do we ask physician economics questions anyhow? Well, the question was actually a health question – he just gave an economics answer. The guy thinks offing yourself when your depressed is a good idea. Let’s take his advice on the economy with a grain of salt.
“I didn’t have any profits last year. On December 30th I foolishly invested it all in an offshore business that went under on December 31st. Same as last year… What terrible luck!”
Dan – All of his assisted suicides were with terminally ill patients.
#4-
Thank you for that. The idea that taxing people for greater gains will make them not seek those gains is illogical. Unless you are taxing at or over 100%, the person is still gaining. As long as the net gain is still valued over the costs (time, effort, resources), the incentive is alive and well.
“Shame he didn’t jump on the whole anti-reform bandwagon to promote assisted suicide as freedom of choice. He could have branded it something like a Death Panel of One.”
Um, by definition “assisted suicide” involved at least two people.
Life and death issues are rarely black and white.
I thought someone was going to suggest that bringing health care costs under control means figuring out how we can all die more cheaply. Living longer doesn’t really cost less.
(To be clear, that was partly tongue-in-cheek)
Dr Kervorkian is a brave American hero, but he is no authority on the politics of health care. Good health is not dependent on Amerikan health care, much less on insurance.
Here in Brazil, I can self-diagnose and buy most drugs without prescription. I pay some $3 for Mebendazole without prescription, for example, saving me over $100. Why the hell should I go to a doctor for such a simple treatment?
Sex, water, food and air are more important than health. Next thing we know, the good doctor will advocate charging a tax and forcing everyone to eat, drink, breathe and breed.
@ 4 and 12:
Don’t Kevorkian’s comments read that he suggests a flat 10% tax on incremental income to pay for health care? That leaves in place the current income tax policy for the nation’s remaining fiscal ambitions, which, at the highest levels in CA and NY is over 50%. To me, that (50%+10%) suggests I have a diminishing incentive to produce a marginal dollar of income. I would venture, based on historical precedence, any time the total tax burden >50% you will see a marked increase in tax fraud. Ergo, raising taxes for health care may not be effective fiscal policy.