Oct 9 2012
The Financial Times examines the creation of UNITAID, an innovative financing mechanism and international drug purchasing facility, and how Philippe Douste-Blazy, chair of the UNITAID Executive Board and France's former foreign minister who helped create the organization, is looking to move beyond drug financing to raise money through "microdonations" for development programs. Douste-Blazy is proposing tacking financial transaction taxes (FTTs) onto the price of certain products and services, creating "gifts so tiny that the donors don't even notice they are giving them," according to the newspaper. The Financial Times writes, "Douste-Blazy argues: 'Certain sectors have benefited enormously from globalization: financial transactions, tourism and mobile phones. We need to tax an economic activity that's only done by the rich, and tax it so lightly that nobody will notice.'" The newspaper continues, "Moreover, he points out, this tax would be popular. And it would save lives" (Kuper, 10/5).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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