Health care trauma
In response to the state crisis in trauma care funding, state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Rosemead, has proposed a 5-cent-per-drink tax on alcoholic beverages. The levy would bring $500 million a year to emergency rooms, thus keeping the state's trauma network intact.
Since alcohol contributes to crashes and injuries, Romero argues, it should help pay for the cost of keeping emergency rooms going.
Perhaps. It's true that alcohol lies behind many incidents of irresponsible behavior -- acts that result in the need for emergency care. But then, so do a lot of other things -- guns, motor vehicles, and fatty foods, for starters -- where does the "sin" taxing end?
But the bigger fault in Romero's plan is that it treats the symptom without touching the underlying causes -- burgeoning health care costs, 6.5 million Californians without health coverage -- that are bankrupting the state's trauma care units. 
Quick fixes like an anti-booze tax only throw more public money into the system, while leaving it to continue bleeding red ink.
