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Paying for poor health habits?
Nov 03, 2008 (Republican & Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Government laws and taxes to curb undesired behavior are nothing new -- smokers have fewer options than ever under the new statewide smoking ban, and Pennsylvanians pay $1.35 in taxes per pack of 20 cigarettes. Obesity, however, is a growing health risk that has not seen the same level of government intervention.
About 26.5 percent of U.S. adults were obese in data collected from January to June 2007, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Under the logic of "sin taxes," could fast-food or junk food be taxed alongside alcohol or tobacco?
A Schuylkill County doctor and a Penn State professor interviewed both said they favored the idea of the government promoting better eating habits but had concerns about whether or not new food taxes would be the proper route.
Dr. Patrick Konitzer, medical director of anesthesia at Saint Catherine Medical Center Fountain Springs, said a junk-food tax would be "absolutely a logical extension" of existing cigarette taxes.
A weak deterrent
Konitzer said obesity creates a huge cost through its associated health problems, which include diabetes, joint problems, arthritis and others. And whereas the percentage of Americans smoking has been coming down with time, Konitzer said obesity rates are going up.
He thinks the deterrent effects of increasing the cost of food, however, would be marginal and says he is cynical of government programs meant to stop smoking, which he said have not been very effective.
Konitzer's worst-case scenario would be using all revenue generated solely to fund health care problems, or even putting them into a general fund for unrelated programs.
"I think it would help the treasury," Konitzer said. "It would not help the behavior."
Konitzer would ideally like to see these taxes go straight back into health insurance to reduce rates for those making healthier decisions.
Too high a burden?
Dr. Claudia Probart, associate professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Penn State, has been working with the state Department of Education for 15 years to improve the nutrition environment in schools. Part of that work includes giving economic incentives for better food choices.
Probart's primary worry about a junk-food tax is low-income consumers -- who often live in poor neighborhoods or inner-city areas and typically shop in convenience store -- have less access to fresh produce.
Probart said she supports lowering the price of healthy foods, but taxes that increase prices might instead raise the burden on those who have less access to healthy food options and who have less opportunity to be educated in nutrition or the implications of a new tax law.
Any attempt to tax food quickly becomes complicated, Probart said. If potato chips, which have a high fat and salt content, are taxed, Probart asked, what would happen to low-fat chips?
"Should that be half the tax?" Probart said.
That's just one example, she said, and while cigarettes are taxed at one rate, there are thousands of food items to sort out.
Economic incentives
Neither Probart nor Dr. Jamie Chriqui, a senior research scientist for the University of Illinois at Chicago's Health Policy Center, were aware of any specific economic research into the idea of any kind of junk food tax at a retail level, such as for fast food restaurants.
Other types of economic incentives have been tried, they said.
In a 2001 University of Minnesota study, for example, low-fat snacks were added to vending machines at high schools and work sites at reduced prices. This was found to be effective in prompting consumers to purchase them over other snack options with higher fat content.
Chriqui said states like North Carolina, New York, and South Carolina experimented with taxes on soda, like an excise tax on soda bottles at the distributor level, in various years from 1997 to 2001. All those taxes were repealed after only a year or two.
And the New York and South Carolina taxes were only one cent per bottle or per 12 ounces, which is far lower than the highest state tobacco taxes in excess of $2.50. Chriqui said there has been no real push for any stricter laws meant to curb the purchase of junk food.
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