HealthCare Reform in the United States - Research Proposal Example

Based on the study conducted by the Pacific Institute on Research and Evaluation (PIRE) in 1999, almost 3,500 deaths are caused by drinkers of below the age of twenty one every year (STATS, 2005). In fact, the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy (2001) reports that approximately 70% to 80% of road accidents occur due to alcohol consumption amongst youngsters below the age of 25. Thus, evaluation needs to be conducted to review the existing policies and come up with sound measures that would cut across the policy criteria effectively to address the teen drunk-driving fatalities problem.

According to the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy (2001), alcohol product pricing has an effect on the rates of the consumption of alcohol in the society. Studies have demystified that if all other factors are held constant, alcohol price increase in general results in a decrease in alcohol consumption, and the opposite is true. The regimes of taxation are a platform from which alcohol price can be influenced. Most governments use their political autocracy for raising revenue to fulfil its goals of protecting the freedom and wellbeing of the citizens.

Generally, the revenue comes from taxes. Alcohol is a significant source for raising government revenue in most countries. The benefits of increasing taxation on alcoholic beverages lie on the basis of public health view. Taxing alcohol as a measure of policy is relatively elementary and acceptable by the government who obtain revenue from it to fulfil its mandate of satisfying public needs. Through making the alcoholic drinks more expensive, there would be a decrease in per capita consumption and this would in turn reduce the problems associated with it.

From a public health perspective, taxing alcoholic drinks would prevent both social and health problems and minimize alcohol-based burden on society. Thus, aside from just curbing drunk-driving