Ethics Of Public Health, And Healthcare

Soda Tax Policy Memorandum More than 35% of American adults are obese and as a consequence, are at increased risks for health issues such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes ("Overweight & Obesity"). The U.S. taxpayer is supplementing much of the cost to treat obesity related health issues through public health programs such as Medicare and Medicaid ("Economic Costs"). A positive externality will occur in the form of decreased health care expenditures on Medicare and Medicaid. The U.S. government should impose an excise tax on soda and other beverages that contain sugar. Consumers who drink excess sugary beverages impose a negative internality on their health; as well as imposing a negative externality on the American

He earnestly states “ The soda producers and distributors, as well as the Teamsters members who deliver the product, argue that the tax is a job killer…” Bittman uses this strategy as a vessel to communicate his enthymeme that the soda producers and distributors only care about the profit they make as they “..may spend as much as 10 million dollars to make that case.” however, Bittman believes that the health of the impoverished is more important than the tax being referred to as a “job killer”. This strategy is effective towards his audience because they now have a clear understanding of what Bittman is arguing. He states “ The logic of taxing sugar-sweetened beverages has been clear for a decade…” here in this quote he explicitly states that the tax is a logical concept in which if it is applied then it will yield great results. Such as, decreasing the percent of children with a threat of diabetes and other

Consumers think that it is awful that they have to pay for someone else’s health care while that person may just as well be drinking twelve cans of soda daily and continually destroying their health. (“Should there be a”, n.d.) These consumers are hoping the soda tax will encourage people to stop abusing soda and at the same time lowering the obesity rate in our country, which now about 66% of our population. Some commenters also said that the government is doing the right thing to try and stop this

“Soda Taxes: Gaining Steam or Getting Steamrolled?” is an enticing article by Anna Gorman that focuses on the issue of taxing sugary beverages and the effect it will ultimately have on the health of the general population. She mentions that the tax could reduce the rates of obesity and diabetes in the affected areas. She also points out the counter to this claim, that soda taxes may not have any effect on obesity rates at all and may give the government too much power over the consumer choice. Overall, she seems to advocate that soda is an unhealthy beverage and should be cut down among consumers. Soda however, is not the only unhealthy options out there. There is a plethora of products on the shelves of supermarkets and sold at restaurants.

The debate on weather sugary drinks, especially soda, should be taxed or not has been a topic for years. Some people believe that they should be taxed for the improvement of health while on the other hand some people think that taxing the drinks won't do much and actually hurt

Can Soda Tax Fight Back Obesity? Today, research asserts soda is one of the leading causes of poor health outcomes in the United States. People define soda as carbonated beverages, or soft drinks, or fizzy drinks. A significant relationship exists between the consumption of carbonated drinks and obesity, type 2 diabetes and dental caries in the United States (Gollust et al., 52). Tax on soda is considered as a government’s intervention to regulate the consumption of these kinds of drinks. In fact, soda should be taxed in the United States because it discourages the consumption of soda, makes people healthier, and raises government funds.

Soda Taxes: The Effectiveness and the Consequences Obesity and diet related disease like diabetes are one of the biggest challenges today in America. The situation continues to worsen every day; obesity becomes a serious health crisis. Cities like Philadelphia and Berkeley, California, are sounding the bell of danger by imposing a tax on the consumption of soda and sugary beverages to cutback sugar consumption; which is a major contributor to the obesity epidemic. Some people say that tax on soda and sugary drinks aren’t beneficial to society and don’t generate any positive effect on public health. Others say that it is a powerful weapon against the obesity epidemic invading the American population. I agree with the later. Taxes on sugary

Junk food is the go-to food when watching a movie or on a road trip. However, the research done suggests that Americans are satisfying their cravings with healthier alternatives these days. The article including this research states, “A 10 percent increase in the price of soda was associated with a 7.12 percent decrease in calories consumed from it, while the same increase in the price of pizza led to an 11.5 percent drop” (Fiore 2010). The numbers calculated in the study demonstrate a steady decrease in the consumption of junk food and drink. The decrease in consumption leads to a decrease in the intake of unhealthy and unneeded calories and sugar which are causing various health issues. A study done concluded that “An 18 percent tax on junk food would result in a 56-calorie decline in total daily energy intake . . . that would translate to about five pounds per patient per year, along with significant reductions in the risks of most obesity-related chronic diseases” (Fiore, 2010). America is not the only country that has thought of implementing a tax on unhealthy products, “More and more countries are adopting fat taxes in an effort to curb rising obesity rates. Both Denmark and Hungary have introduced a fat tax or junk food tax, and France is taxing sweetened drinks” (Sifferlin, 2012). These taxations are strongly

Soda Tax Policy Memorandum This policy memo will address why the policy maker should impose a sugar beverage excise tax on the American Beverage Association's member corporations. More than 35% of American adults are obese and as a consequence, are at increased risks for health issues such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes ("Overweight & Obesity"). The U.S. taxpayer is supplementing much of the cost to treat obesity related health issues through public health programs such as Medicare and Medicaid ("Economic Costs"). A positive externality will occur in the form of decreased health care expenditures on Medicare and Medicaid. The U.S. Government should impose an excise tax on soda and other beverages that contain sugar.

The Balance Between Perceived Public Health and Liberty According to Gostin and Wiley (n.d), “The role of public health is to assure the conditions needed to promote and protect people’s health. These conditions include various economic, social, and environmental factors that are necessary for good health” (para, 2). The law in the United States of America proved that there is a positive suitable balance between public health interests by public officials and individual autonomy. The Soda Ban is an excellent example of this kind of balance. The balance between officials of public health and liberty should be flexible in which it opens the door for all parties to be engaged without limitation or favoritism.

The current problem with overweight became more and more serious with sad effects on the nation 's health, especially for the young generation, that’s why the probability of implementing fat tax constantly increased in spite of the strong power of the opposition, such as McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Subway, Starbucks, and others. More than one-third of Americans have problems with overweight and obesity, the Fat Tax can be a way to pay more attention of society on the problem with obesity, promote a healthy eating lifestyle, improve public health and refill government budget, but it was important to make implementing slowly and thoughtfully for getting best results instead of collapsing and higher prices on products.

“Sin” taxes have been proven as a way to curtail known unhealthy behaviors. Soda taxes are most accepted if taxes collected are earmarked for health specific programs (Chaufin et al., 2010). The cons are the consumers are the voters and taxing may equate to loss of votes, taxing may not be equitable to individuals that do not have the disease, and finally, an undue burden may be placed on lower socio-economic demographics as these groups often have limited access to food vendors that primarily sale what would be considered taxed foods. Though these sin taxes are proven to work well with tobacco and alcohol consumption, altering a persons’ diet needs to be more individualized and realistically approached. Lower socio-economic individuals should not feel added burden as a tax; which would be a negative impact (Kuchar et al., 2005). Legality issues are regarded as low, but would require state government support to enact. This would likely not be popularly accepted and have a minimal impact for any increase in tax rate.

Fat Taxes Are Not The Answer Although Fat taxes could discourage consumers from eating foods that aren't good for them, they should not be implemented. Making citizens pay unnecessary taxes is most definitely not the answer. Reality is that obesity can be caused by many different factors other than the consumption of unhealthy foods. Factors such as genetics, mental health, lack of exercise and poor portion control, play a far more important part in maintaining a healthy weight. Therefore, losing weight is an individual process that can’t be tackled with such a simplistic approach.

Unhealthy foods are identified by linked to being significant causes of obesity. For example, the number of children with obesity has doubled while children receive 12% of their calories from fast food (Szabo 1), so fast food would be included in the spectrum of unhealthy food. Also in this category, are junk foods, such as chips and candy, sugary beverages, such as soda and added-sugar fruit juices, as they have also been associated to obesity and do not provide proportional nutritional benefits. Foods would not be the only thing affected by the tax. Related services would also be affected, such as fast food restaurant drive-throughs. Skepticism may arise to a tax affecting such a large industry in the US, but an UFT is not as

Considering that soft drinks are one of the most popular drinks to a lot of people all around the world, unfortunately, a lot of them love to drink it almost every day and may not live without it. Soda becomes addictive, preventing one from drinking what the body needs the