Henry George Institute

Every healthcare conversation eventually meets the ground.

Where can a clinic open? How much does a hospital site cost? Can nurses, patients, and caregivers afford to live nearby? Is there room for community health centers where people actually need them?

Henry George saw that location value is not created by landowners alone. It grows from community: roads, neighbors, schools, businesses, public services, and human cooperation. HGI summarizes the idea clearly: land value is created by society, so it should benefit everyone.

A Land Value Tax collects the value of land itself, not the buildings, clinics, homes, or improvements on it. That means productive use is encouraged, while holding valuable land idle becomes less rewarding.

For healthcare, that matters. Better land policy can make it easier to fund public goods, reduce pressure on workers and builders, and support care closer to where people live.

Healthcare access is not just insurance coverage. It is also access to place.

If progress makes land more valuable, we should talk about who gets that value and what a fair system looks like. Want more posts like this? Follow + share + tell me what topic next: rent, taxes, homelessness, booms/busts.

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Home - Henry George Institute Our courses cast light on today's baffling economic problems.

Share a photo: an empty lot near a busy street + caption ‘Why is this still empty? Post a photo (or describe a spot) where land sits unused.

https://www.chicagofed.org/publications/chicago-fed-letter/2023/489

Land Value Taxes—What They Are and Where They Come From - Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Changes to property tax structures, including the introduction of split-rate taxation, have been seeing increased interest from policymakers. Split-rate property taxation is rooted in the concept of land value taxation, which is an alternative to the form of property taxation used in most U.S. commu...