Drew Linky wrote:

Well, that would be an effective way to make fat people leave the country eventually.

As long as they pay for the two seats they take up on the airplane!

I wonder where they'd go though. Many Western European countries already ban unhealthy foodstuffs like high fructose corn syrup, and are on their way to regulate salt content in foods. So if the fat people moved there they'd probably lose some weight. Canada's an option, but I find the people who don't like LOCAL governments making food regulations, also think the Canadian healthcare system is evil or something. Good luck with that.

The taxes on nutritiously worthless foods, which are coming eventually, will be paid by the people who want to eat them. They may bitch and moan, but they'll still cough up the money. It's like cigarettes. You can gradually raise the prices of those things and people still pay it.

You guys need to realize...just because some of you eat fast food everyday and still only weigh 150 pounds doesn't mean you're the norm. There's a major epidemic in this country that will directly effect not only the health care costs of every citizen of this country, but also the economy as a whole. The current course can not be sustained. Intervention is needed, and now.

Atma wrote:

I could be wrong, but I don't think the extra 6 cents is going to deter anyone from buying it. They'll bitch about it. But that's about it.

It's not about curbing people from buying it. It's about taking that extra tax and putting it towards health care costs. Now, it wouldn't work perfectly with the system we have anyway because health services are privatized. It would have to be applied to Medicare and Medicaid costs because those and the VA are currently the only government-run health care. But that would mean the tax would only help people who are eligible for Medicare (over 65, or disabled). The people who get punished are the people who live responsibily and pay their premiums. Their costs go up because a huge amount of people are eating themselves into a multitude of health issues. The costs for the extra health care gets spread around to everyone, even those who maintain a healthy lifestyle. That's how it's always been, but now with health care costs skyrocketing directly because of this epidemic of unhealthy living it's far more noticeable. Currently, I pay nearly $1200 a month in health insurance for my family. That's because I don't get it through an employer. That number has more than doubled in about six years, and I think it was about a third of that 10 years ago. That rate is going to be difficult to sustain in the upcoming years.

That's why so many people just say the hell with it and go without health care. If an emergency comes up, the people who actually pay for insurance will have to take on the difference.

The extra tax on junk food would have to be calculated to offset the projected costs of health care for diseases and issues related to poor nutrition. 5% is probably far too low, actually.

Health care insurance is exactly like any other, such as car insurance. You may never get into an accident and are a perfectly safe driver, but too bad...other assholes cause your premiums to be where they are because of the damage they do. When a person is rewarded a huge injury settlement, the insurance company takes the initial hit, but just spreads that out over all the policy holders. That's fine because having a car isn't necessarily a right. But I'd argue that this same system shouldn't apply to a life and death scenario such as health care.

Sorry about the long post, but an issue like banning Happy Meals and whether that's right or not is inherently tied to health care, and that's why I got into it a bit. Bottom line--the tax isn't necessarily to stop people from eating crap. It's to help pay for the consequences down the road so people don't have to pay for the irresponsibility of others.

And hey, if it causes some people to not eat so much junk food, then that's a major plus as well.