Soda Tax Won't Improve Children's Health

Earlier this year, the Illinois State Dental Society was proposing a 5 percent soda tax to pay for dental programs for poor people in the state. Now the pediatric chiefs of nine Illinois hospitals are supporting a 1-cent-per-ounce soda tax to fund children's health care programs ("Illinois doctors propose tax on soft drinks," Oct. 5).

The tax revenue is suggested to help solve "work force shortages." Does that mean taxpayers should subsidize pediatricians' pay or college tuition? It is true that attracting new, talented doctors to the field requires financial incentives, but taxpayers should not have to subsidize those incentives.

The soft drink companies and their consumers are not to blame for low reimbursement rates and other concerns. The answer is not more taxes, more government spending and new government programs. In fact, higher taxes will serve only to create a new set of problems for the state.

Instead, we need to limit the government bureaucracy in health care and allow pediatricians more freedom to set a reasonable rate for their services and expertise.

John Nothdurft — Chicago
The Heartland Institute

This letter to the editor was originally published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.