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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 25, 1992                   TAG: 9201300040
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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GET MEDICAID FUNDS BY LEAF, WHISKEY TAXES

GOV. WILDER wants to impose new taxes to cover the costs of more Medicaid patients. True, the feds will pay half, but he needs more money, about $12 per person in Virginia. He is concerned about the cost of health care, so he proposes to tax health-care services.

The surest way to increase the cost of an item is to tax it. So Mr. Wilder wants to tax it. He missed the economics lesson implicit in the Boston Tea Party.

We are in this bind due in part to lack of foresight by Wilder when he was dreaming of being governor and had access to all the information about revenues and budget.

The amount needed is only $12 per capita, and a poll tax of $1 per month would do it.

What is wrong with a tax on whiskey and cigarettes? Neither is a necessity. Moreover, Medicaid patients smoke more than other people, and that money could help to pay for their health needs. With such a tax we would get a triple hit: discourage smoking; improve health, thus cutting Medicaid costs; reduce heart disease, cases of cancer and strokes.

If we could only get the governor to see it, he has an opportunity to do something great for Virginia, a tax to give health care to the poor and to make all of us more healthy. A better record than last year! MARVIN N. LOUGHEED BOONES MILL

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