Fight Obesity? Add Sales Tax to Soda Tab

From the Associated Press:

In a bid to ramp up the public health battle against obesity, a group of nutrition and economics experts are pushing for a tax of 1 cent on every of ounce of sodas and other sweetened beverages.

Proposals for a hefty soda tax though have repeatedly fallen flat. The idea was even floated as a way to help pay for health care reform, but government officials on Wednesday said that's not likely to happen.

The experts' plan was released by the influential New England Journal of Medicine, in a health policy article by Arkansas' surgeon general, New York City's health commissioner and five national experts on health and economics.

A soda tax would generate tax revenue while discouraging people from consuming extra calories, the authors contend. They cited a series of studies that showed higher rates of obesity and diabetes among women who drank more sugar-sweetened beverages. They argue that a steeper soda tax would borrow the same strategy that helped drive down cigarette smoking while bolstering government revenues.

But a golden opportunity for enacting a national soda tax apparently slipped away Wednesday, when the Senate Finance Committee released its health reform proposal without a previously considered soda tax provision.

A Healthy Tax

From the NewYorkTimes.com:

The problem with obesity has become so overpowering in America that no single remedy guarantees a solution. But a proposal now being considered by some in Congress to tax drinks loaded with sugar would certainly help. The idea is that taxes worked to lower tobacco use — a habit far harder to break — so they should help young people limit their intake of soda or other forms of “liquid candy.”

Michael Jacobson, the executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a health advocacy group, has estimated that for every penny of tax added to a 12-ounce bottle or can of these drinks, consumption of all those empty calories would drop by 1 percent.

Those taxes also could raise money for health care, either to help finance the reform plan now being considered in Congress or to help fight the obesity epidemic. Americans spend about $50 billion a year on non-diet sodas — even more when counting sugared teas and sports drinks — so even a small tax would add up.

The beverage industry is gearing up to fight, and a recent win in New York State offers clues about its strategy. To fill huge budget gaps, Gov. David Paterson proposed an 18 percent tax on sugary drinks but scrapped the idea after lobbyists charged that a tax would land unfairly on lower-income families. That was enough for many politicians, who ignored the fact that too many of these same families suffer from obesity and its related problems, while lacking adequate access to health care.

Bigger fixes are needed, of course, starting with decent health care. The young need more exercise, healthier lunches and better education on nutrition. All consumers — not just those lucky enough to live near farms or large grocery stores — should be able to buy fresh fruits and vegetables at affordable prices. While we wait, Congress could impose an excise tax on sugary drinks — one of the main culprits in the obesity epidemic.