Should We Tax the Fat? (UK)?

Question

I know this will cause controversial responses, and please note that my opinion is not yet formed, hence the question.

Overweight people cost the NHS £4.6Billion a year through treatment, rehab, care, special home equipment and death. This is serious money that could be reinvested into education, health care and other vital resources that are shockingly underfunded.

I know this will cause controversial responses, and please note that my opinion is not yet formed, hence the question.

Overweight people cost the NHS £4.6Billion a year through treatment, rehab, care, special home equipment and death. This is serious money that could be reinvested into education, health care and other vital resources that are shockingly underfunded.

EDIT:

For your information, consider that alcohol users andsmokers are already taxed extra when they purchase alcohol or ciggarettes.

Answer 1

We should tax the fast food joints!

Answer 2

The question as to where this 'serious money' should be invested into other shockingly underfunded areas is more an argument or discussion than a question so it shouldn't really be here. However the point that Obesity costs the government money is valid and true.

Health care for the obese is expensive and avoidable just like health care for most lung cancer patients and drunks who fill A&E's on a friday night.

These expenses are avoidable in that someone has made a decission to engage in an unhealthy activity and are now reaping the consequences.

The trick is to discourage people from engaging in an unhealthy life style in the first place. (this is by far the most sensible option)

An excise tax on unhealthy food (similar to those on cigarettes and alchohol) could provide both the dis-incentive to eat bad food and partially pay for the health care costs run up by those who still eat junk.

So in answer to your question:

Kinda, tax the food not the people, provide a disincentive to eat fatty food.

Answer 3

You are setting and/or encouraging a very dangerous precedent. Government control freaks have already made a start on this, eg being overweight, smoking etc. All because the NHS is short of resources. Anybody who understands the public sector, knows that it is inherently inefficient, because it has no competition etc. How long before they extend this concept to sporting injuries, drink too much, failure to exercise, you are too old to treat, the list could go on. Don't you understand that you are allowing the Government an opportunity to micro manage your life, cradle to grave. You mention education, but that has been a disaster for many years, and it is ideaology not shortage of resources that is the problem. Should overweight people have their taxes refunded if they, and others, are not going to receive treatment. By far the greater proportion of NHS and associated facilities, is expended on females, should we get rid of them, or, only treat so many? The other problem is, define overweight, The criteria used would have a six foot male, weighing about twelve stone. They can also lower the barrier whenever they feel like it. Stress, is probably the greatest cause of ill health. Can we ban that at a stroke. Where on earth did you get the £4.6 billion from? I don't believe it, and everybody has to die of something. Understand this, THE PUBLIC SECTOR IS INEFFICIENT. It needs root and branch reform to make it more efficient. Don't forget, that it exists to serve us, not to lecture us on how we should live our lives. Don't forget also, that people who die younger save an awful lot of money for us, by not drawing pension benefits etc. THE PUBLIC SECTOR IS NOT UNDERFUNDED IT IS UNREFORMED. I think that you are dead out of line with what you are proposing. Do not encourage this control freak government by doing their work for them. SOME PEOPLE CAN'T HELP BEING OVERWEIGHT, and why can't it be regarded as an illness per se. Also, the NHS spends a lot of money on things like fertility treatment, plastic surgery etc. These are not illnesses and shouldn't be entertained, if they are genuinely short of resources.

Answer 4

Well being fat, I think I'm already taxed enough...I work full time paying tax...I have a home...pay council tax...I have a car..road and fuel tax...I buy food and clothing for my self and kids...taxed again!
I've only ever been in hospital twice (to give birth)...I don't see my doctor unless I am ordered to the surgery for the stuff women get asked to attend for.
I don't smoke or drink, everything I do, I pay for with my own money which I earn.
Why should I be taxed for being fat?
Should I be taxed on my colour?...ethnic origin?..if I was thin?...if I had mental health problems?..if I use a wheelchair?...if I had been born with a birth abnormality?...for my politics?...etc etc
Where does it all end?...I pay my National Insurance like every other worker, and as such I am entitled if I require it, to medical treatment for any condition that I may have, be that requiring a bandage on my fat knee...or for an heart transplant.
If the NHS is so shockingly underfunded, then maybe some of the fat cats of industry that create some of the health problems in society should be taxed more.

Answer 5

Its not the fat we should tax but the fact is that healthy food is so god damned expensive.You can buy a large packet of biscuits or sweets for pennies yet healthy food costs so much.If healthy food was made more afforable then we might be able to live more healthily on lower incomes.Poor people find it easier to find a pound for a bag of potatoes or 50 pence for a loaf of bread that will make several meals than paying more for a bag of apples or oranges.My mom always said that as long as we had a bag of potatoes and a loaf of bread then we had a meal....sad i know but we were poor.If supermarkets reduced the cost of healthy food to the same level as junk food then people on low incomes would have a choice but it just doesnt seem to be the case as supermarkets are concerned more with profits than peoples health.If you are going to tax the fat then while you are at it,why not tax the smokers,the non exercisers,the drivers,the non working mums,the mentally retarded,the ill,the old,immigrants etc etc,for they all put strain on the NHS??????

Answer 6

Tax the advertisers that encourge people to become fat, or the suppermarketts of selling foods with bad fats in. Tax schools for giving people low self esteam or the rest of society for outcasting people who are not the norm.
This question has raised a good point, but dont pick on the victims of a societys problem.

Answer 7

Maybe we should tax or sue the government that enabled it's own people to turn out this way. Increased workload for teachers lead to decrease in sports in schools. Allowed many fast food chains to open up everywhere because it meant more money was going into taxes. Reduced free or affordable sports facilities that reach out to the needy (not tennis courts that only affluent families can afford!) due to selling up land to property developers (more taxes). Lack of social considerations re policies and laws re prisoners, ex-offenders, phaedophiles, lack of (free) social clubs for old and young etc. People are afraid to go out because of the environment created. Everything costs money... and now it costs them back.

Healthy Nation? We need a healthy government who cares about it's people and invest NOW, not when the problem gets out of hand and costs more.

(Having said that, people need to take responsibilities for their own health and the choice of government, so we need to decide: who will we vote for next time with so few good choices.... That begs another question....)

Answer 8

Yes. Mostly Government should control the types of ingredients used in food products and control the way food companies advertise their products.

These days a moderate eater can end up hungry again quickly because the food they're eating is devoid of essential nutrients and full temporarily satisfying but unnecessary gunge - People get the calories without nutrition so their brains become hooked on junk food and they eat more because they’re still hungry.

Answer 9

One the one hand the government is concerned about the potentially high mortality rate caused by obesity and on the other they are saying that there will be no money to pay for the state pension in the future because people are living longer.

Hidden agenda somewhere?

Answer 10

By your examples of alcohol and ciggarettes, we should tax processed foods or foods that contain high levels of fat, as well as what Zulu9 suggests, tax the fast food restaurants too.

Perhaps the tax could be used and offset in subsidies/vouchers for fresh produce for low income families.

Answer 11

I think thats the start of a slippery slope down to Orwells big brother where we all have to exercise in front of the TV every day or get punished.
Universal provision of health care is universal or its not, do you descriminate against people who injure themselves through stupidity? or against people who get pregnant "too" young, people who become HIV positive after unsafe sex etc. etc.
I'm healthy myself and have an Ideal BMI but I hate the idea of such an impractical predjudiced tax