Human Resources News & Insights

Can ‘sugar tax’ actually lower healthcare costs?

It’s no secret American’s don’t take very good care of themselves. Well, researchers suggest a new tax may help change that.

Researchers from Columbia University, UC San Francisco and Virginia Tech calculated that a penny-per-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages would significantly slash the instances of heart disease and strokes, according to a report in Heatlh Affairs.

Surely, this would tick off a lot of soda fans.

But the researchers say the tax would reduce super-sweet beverage consumption by 15%, resulting in the average adult age 25 to 64 consuming nine fewer calories per day. That, they say, would result in enough weight loss to reduce the number of obese adults by 867,000 in 10 years.

Other claims:

  • The beverage tax would result in 95,000 fewer instances of heart disease and 8,000 fewer strokes, saving 26,000 lives and $17 billion in medical costs
  • The revenue generated from the tax would equal approx. $13 billion, and
  • Americans would drink more milk and juice to make up for the calories lost by drinking less soda.

Is there enough evidence?

Critics of beverage taxes say there still isn’t enough hard evidence to prove that raising the price of sugar-sweetened beverages prompts people to make healthier choices, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

Beverage taxes have been implemented in various areas of the country already, and studies have shown the taxes don’t reduce consumption enough to have a significant impact on people’s body mass index.

Proponents, on the other hand, say it’ll have the same impact that tobacco taxes had on smokers: As taxes went up, smoking went down.

Do you think a beverage tax would help improve individuals’ health and lower healthcare costs? Share your opinion in the Reply box below.

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  • H2r

    While I agree that reducing consumtion of high-sugar beverages would have an impct on U.S. health, when is the last time you walked in to a McDonald’s, saw prices had jumped 15 or 20 percent and turned around and walked out. The reason tobacco use has decreased so dramatically is that taxes have increased the price of tobacco by about 500% and its use has been restricted severely in public places. To be comparative, a large Coke would cost you about $10 and you’d have to step outside to drink it.

  • Common Sense

    What the article fails to mention and most people fail to realize is that sugar producers (like Tobacco farmers) are heavily subsidized by the government. This subsidy keeps sugar artificially low.

    Why don’t we just remove the subsidies instead of creating a new tax.

    I despise this kind of social engineering where the government picks winners and losers. More often than not it ends up that the everyday citizen ends up paying the bill in one form or another.

  • HRpat

    Memo to H2r: That would work!