Re:Genetic Predisposition to Obesity and Medicare Expenditur...
by nradov on Thursday February 22, 2018 @01:43AM
(#16435683)
Be careful what you ask for. High taxes on alcohol would be like Prohibition "lite". Smuggling and corruption would increase. Drinkers would go blind from poorly distilled moonshine.
Leaving aside the fact that BMI isn't a great metric (as mentioned in another comment); we can probably come up with a better one.
80% of healthcare costs are driven by 15 conditions, which in turn are mostly affected by 8 behaviors [1]. I bet that the bulk of the cost is due to completely changeable lifestyle behaviors (diet, drinking, smoking, physical activity).
Alcohol and tobacco should be more heavily taxed (fast-food is trickier, as we need to make sure that there's healthy, equally-accessible food options out there). Education around healthy lifestyle choices should be more available, as well as gym memberships/fitness equipment/trainers. Sure they do cost money, but we're already paying so much through non-preventive healthcare.
Any other ideas how to disincentivized unhealthy lifestyle choices?
[1] http://www.aon.com/attachments/human-capital-consulting/2012...