Kids Wellness and Taxes: Cause and Effect or Politics?

BusinessWeek has a provokatively titled article: Kids Are Falling in the Wellness Gap, that cites a recent report by Every Child Matters, a DC based "Education Fund".

The study looks at child health metrics, including infant mortality, teenage pregrancy and child abuse rates, across different States in the Union. The States are ranked by overall child wellness and the study sponsors make several conclusions, such as:

... the biggest determinants of a state's standing in those rankings are poverty, educational achievement, and the size of minority populations.

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... the bottom-ranked states generally have a narrower view of the role of government in addressing social issues, and have much lower tax burdens than those states at the top of the lists. Every Child Matters says it's highlighting the findings in part to build a case for "new investments in health, education, and social programs" aimed at kids wherever they live.

It is hard to argue with the factual data and I applaud Every Child Matters for sponsoring the study and putting spotlight on child health. But, I cannot help but point out that correlation does not imply causation. Read linked Wikipedia article for a statistics theory explanation, but basically this is an example of a logical fallacy.

No question, more tax money offers a chance to provide more health and wellness services to the underserved. But none of this proves that the government-run delivery would always work better than public-private partnerships. We should be looking at smarter uses of money and creative private sector incentives, rather than assume that high taxes is the only answer to improving health.

Here is a sampling of comments on BusinessWeek blog:

Dante Apr 2, 2008 9:19 PM GMT

Now, did the "researchers" bothered asking one simple question? Question: what are the family values in these states. Are they aware that there is such a word as "husband", "parental responsibility", "parental oversight", or just "parents"?

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zatom114 Apr 3, 2008 3:13 AM GMT

tax do not equate to better standard of living for kids. We spend more in school education today and for our "investment" kids are taught everything but math, science, and writing... basic skills. I am in my mid 30's and will not have my families kids educated by system overpaid teachers and spoiled kids who get away with everything but racism, asprin, and murder....

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CandyKay Apr 4, 2008 7:13 PM GMT

I live in Denmark, where income taxes are 60%, sales taxes are 25% and all health care is free, as is a college education. Children here are very healthy and happy - but long-term, there is still a difference in children's health levels, largely because some families have better habits than others. You can have equality of opportunity, but that doesn't necessarily mean equality of outcome.

I hope we can move past turning the issues of public health into political football and focus on finding practical solutions.