Daily Score Blog

Via Tom Paine comes news of a carbon tax in New Zealand. The fee for emitting greenhouse gases pays for tax reductions for small business. Check it out.

About one-sixth of all residents of the US Northwest lack health insurance, according to the most recent data from the US Census Bureau.  And you'd think that this would be a major reason that residents of BC--where health care is universal--live about two and a half years longer than do residents of Oregon, Idaho, and Washington.

Or, maybe not.  I recently ran across this article from 2002, which reports on an Institute of Medicine study that estimates that 18,000 people between the ages of 18 and 64 die each year in the United States because they lack health insurance. 

Now, 18,000 deaths is certainly a tragedy of significant proportions. However, according to mortality data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those 18,000 deaths represent only about 3 percent of all deaths among working age Americans in 2002. 

Let's say that, by extending health insurance to everyone in the US, those 18,000 deaths could be prevented.  In terms of outcomes, that would be a good thing:  US life expectancy (one of the best proxies for overall health) would rise by about 2 months.  But, still, the life expectancy gap between Canada and the US would narrow only a bit, falling from 29 months to 27.   That's obviously a good thing, but in the big picture, it's still a drop in the bucket.

Now, a couple of caveats.  First, the IOM study didn't look at deaths among children under 18; extending insurance to them would probably improve life expectancy by a bit more.  Second, it may be hard to tease apart the effects of underinsurance as opposed to outright lack of insurance.  Some folks have catastrophic coverage that takes care of them in case of an emergency, but avoid going to the doctor for preventative treatment because they pay for such care out of pocket.  And, of course, there may be some methodological errors in the IOM study that make the 18,000 figure a significant understimate (or overestimate) of actual deaths that result from uninsurance.

Still I can't escape this conclusion: there's a lot more to health than health insurance.  The health gap between the US and most other industrialized is pretty wide; and it's not *just* our (broken and wildly expensive) health care system that's at fault.  Other factors are at play.  So as important as it may be to improve access to health care, it's probably just as important to look at--and fix--the underlying factors that cause us to get ill in the first place.

Vancouver, BC's Price Tags newsletter takes on a nifty subject in Issue 67: the role that lanes have played in the city's past ("generally housing the messy bits of life") and how they might evolve in the future. Among other things, lanes--which Americans might think of as "alleys"--might "allow a more gradual form of densification, providing access for the granny cottages and secondary suites that accommodate growth without changing the character of the community."

The photos tell much of the story, from the reduced-pavement "country lanes" that are being developed as an urban transportation showcase (similar to a Seattle project) to Mole Hill's skinny, garden-friendly lane to prototypes of innovative infill housing in lanes.

The numbers are promising: A study of lane development in Toronto indicated it could increase housing stock by 5 percent, with a corresponding increase in the municipal tax base of some $11 billion.

P.S. - For archives of Price Tags, go here.

Governor Gregoire made it official last Friday: Washington will adopt California's clean-car standards. The standards will take effect in 2009, assuming that Oregon also adopts the standards--a critical and unusual provision in Washington's legislation.

Further to my earlier post, here's a national energy plan that I strongly endorse, from the Center for American Progress. The ideas actually come from Rocky Mountain Institute's Winning the Oil Endgame, but CAP has boiled them down to a few salient points. The short-term plan starts with:

1. A scrap-and-replace program for low-income households' clunkers.

2. Vehicle feebates.

3. Better tires.

4. Car sharing.

Today is the 45th anniversary of the legalization of birth control pills in the United States. There's a nice synopsis on Writer's Almanac.