The King of Emergency Room Visits

According to the New York Times, roughly a third of all visits to emergency rooms for injuries are alcohol related, and the majority of those can be blamed on five beer brands, three of which are varieties of Budweiser owned by Anheuser-Busch, itself owned by an international conglomerate called AB InBev. The other two are Steel Reserve, owned by MillerCoors, and Colt 45, owned by Pabst Brewing Company.

According to the Times, previous studies have found that alcohol frequently plays a role in emergency room admissions, especially those stemming from car accidents, falls, homicides and drownings.

With so many health-care dollars devoted to these emergency room visits, it’s time for drinkers and the companies that profit from the sales of these liquids that encourage behavior leading to hospitalizations to pay the piper.

Simply put, why not slap a dollar tax on each beer sold, to be set aside to help fund Obamacare, as well as taxing a percentage of corporate profits based on the sale of these beers – again, to be set aside specifically for healthcare?

While I have no figures to say how much money this would raise, nor how much it would contribute to the total cost of healthcare, I’m guessing the numbers would probably be staggering and make a huge difference in insurance premiums. And if the taxes resulted in a dip in beer sales, presumably that would also result in fewer beer-related hospitalizations, thereby lowering overall spending on healthcare.