Lower Health Care Cost By Taxing Processed Food (1 Viewer)

[Peacenik]

An idea occurred to me.

That usually means I'm being visionary and if I voice it I will receive major blowback because so few people can visualize big picture issues and long range solutions spanning great lengths of time such as years and decades.

That's because we like in a world of 2 questions:

1. What's in it for me?
2. How soon can I get it?

Regardless of that, this idea strikes me as an ideal approach to our ridiculously high cost of health care.

Q: What does health care cost so much in the USA?

A: Because we get so sick.

If we had a healthier population, health care would cost less. (I hope people can at least visualize that.)

Q: How can we be healthier?

A: By eating better.

We do eat a lot of quick and easy food and it would be healthier if we ate more whole foods instead of the usual processed food. America was healthier before the advent of so much processed foods.

Q: Why do we eat so much processed food?

A: Because it's cheaper and easier than preparing whole foods from scratch.

But that is a kind of a conundrum. Logically, it would be cheaper to simply sell the raw unprocessed ingredients than it is to put the foods through an expensive energy-consuming process to get it to the point that it's full of preservatives, all looks exactly the same, has a longer shelf life, is packaged in fancy packaging, and it's easy to heat and eat. The reason is because of volume. Anything done in large volume is cheaper to sell and more profitable for agri-business than stuff that has a shorter shelf life and is not so easily marketed.

The dirty secret is the more processed the food is, the more profitable it is.

We can use that secret to make America healthier, extend lifespans, and reduce the cost of health care.

What we need to do is tax processed foods and use the proceeds to reduce the cost of whole foods. It's called regulating commerce. It's in the Constitution. We should do it.

When the price of foods more closely reflect the healthiness of foods in an inversely proportional way consumers will buy more whole foods and fewer processed foods. America will eat healthier. Americans won't get as sick. There will be less demand for health care and that will reduce the cost of health care.

 

[Peacenik]

The reason we don't do this is because government is bought; and there is big money to be made selling unhealthy highly processed foods.

1+1=2

 

[Peacenik]

Lots of big money will be spent to convince people this should not be done. It will be effective.

 

[Peacenik]

Big money talks. Good ideas get crushed.

 

[BirdinHand]

We already have varying ways that this is done:

Food and Sales Tax: Let’s Dig In | Sales Tax Institute

Who knew that as a sales tax professional, you had to be so in touch with the nuances of food types!? Let’s dig into the details of the taxation of food... both the sweet and the sour.

www.salestaxinstitute.com

 

[Peacenik]

Ever get the wild hair up your butt that you're going to eat healthier and go to the store looking for healthier non-GMO and "Organic" foods? And then ya get there and find an entire "Healthy food isle;" but the next thing you get hit with is sticker shock. The prices of eating healthy will have you working to death!

 

[Michael Cole]

Horrible idea. There's a reason my state (and I assume others) has no sales tax on food.

Q: Why is there no sales tax on food in NV?

A: Because if we don't eat, we die.

 

[BirdinHand]

Ever get the wild hair up your butt that you're going to eat healthier and go to the store looking for healthier non-GMO and "Organic" foods? And then ya get there and find an entire "Healthy food isle;" but the next thing you get hit with is sticker shock. The prices of eating healthy will have you working to death!

Shop the perimeter of the grocery store.

Ignore things like “organic” and “non-gmo”. (In reality, they really don’t mean much)

Buy ingredients vs. prepared food items.

If you switch to doing that, you’re already more than halfway there.

 

[Peacenik]

We already have varying ways that this is done:

Food and Sales Tax: Let’s Dig In | Sales Tax Institute

Who knew that as a sales tax professional, you had to be so in touch with the nuances of food types!? Let’s dig into the details of the taxation of food... both the sweet and the sour.

www.salestaxinstitute.com

Sort of, but not enough. Sales taxes go to state coffers. Some processed foods are taxed at a higher level, but how much of the healthy food prices are subsidized by a negative sales tax? Unheard of. That's my proposal.

If processed foods are taxed at a higher rate, that's all fine and well, but it's not enough to produce the effect I envision.

Those taxes need to be higher and the proceeds need to get used to reduce the prices of healthier foods.

 

[Peacenik]

Shop the perimeter of the grocery store.

Ignore things like “organic” and “non-gmo”. (In reality, they really don’t mean much)

Buy ingredients vs. prepared food items.

If you switch to doing that, you’re already more than halfway there.

Good advice. Anyone can do that. But in order to reduce the cost of national health care the volume of people doing that needs to increase. It has to be worth while for people to take the time to prepare their own foods. There has to be a cost incentive rather than a prohibitive cost punishment.

 

[LouC]

An idea occurred to me.

That usually means I'm being visionary and if I voice it I will receive major blowback because so few people can visualize big picture issues and long range solutions spanning great lengths of time such as years and decades.

That's because we like in a world of 2 questions:

1. What's in it for me?
2. How soon can I get it?

Regardless of that, this idea strikes me as an ideal approach to our ridiculously high cost of health care.

Q: What does health care cost so much in the USA?

A: Because we get so sick.

If we had a healthier population, health care would cost less. (I hope people can at least visualize that.)

Q: How can we be healthier?

A: By eating better.

We do eat a lot of quick and easy food and it would be healthier if we ate more whole foods instead of the usual processed food. America was healthier before the advent of so much processed foods.

Q: Why do we eat so much processed food?

A: Because it's cheaper and easier than preparing whole foods from scratch.

But that is a kind of a conundrum. Logically, it would be cheaper to simply sell the raw unprocessed ingredients than it is to put the foods through an expensive energy-consuming process to get it to the point that it's full of preservatives, all looks exactly the same, has a longer shelf life, is packaged in fancy packaging, and it's easy to heat and eat. The reason is because of volume. Anything done in large volume is cheaper to sell and more profitable for agri-business than stuff that has a shorter shelf life and is not so easily marketed.

The dirty secret is the more processed the food is, the more profitable it is.

We can use that secret to make America healthier, extend lifespans, and reduce the cost of health care.

What we need to do is tax processed foods and use the proceeds to reduce the cost of whole foods. It's called regulating commerce. It's in the Constitution. We should do it.

When the price of foods more closely reflect the healthiness of foods in an inversely proportional way consumers will buy more whole foods and fewer processed foods. America will eat healthier. Americans won't get as sick. There will be less demand for health care and that will reduce the cost of health care.

I don't disagree that there is health evil in processed foods but it is such a ubiquitous and ingrained cog in our America's gears that even waxing optimistic I don't see taxing it out of existence as a feasible do.

 

[BirdinHand]

good advice. Anyone can do that. But in order to reduce the cost of health care the volume of people doing that needs to increase. It has to be worth while for people to take the time to prepare their own foods. There has to be a cost incentive rather than a prohibitive cost punishment.

People need the TIME to do that.

When people and parents are working 40+ hours a week outside the home - sometimes way more - it becomes a very real challenge.

Our problem isn’t food. Our problem is the US has a horrific work-life balance and the cost of surviving isn’t just measured in money.

If you have to work 50-60 hours outside the home just to keep a roof over your heads and the lights on? Odds are you’re reaching for the quick and easy prepackaged meals that take but a few minutes to heat and eat vs. expending time and energy that you don’t have to cook things from scratch.

The wider the divide between the rich and poor and the more time the poor - upper middle class have to spend working - the less time and energy people have to spend making sure the food they do consume is healthy.

 

[Peacenik]

I don't disagree that there is health evil in processed foods but it is such a ubiquitous and ingrained cog in our America's gears that even waxing optimistic I don't see taxing it out of existence as a feasible do.

Anybody who really wants to make America great again should want to take us back to a situation where people are naturally guided towards healthy eating instead of unhealthy eating.

We can do that with progressive regulation of food commerce.

 

[BirdinHand]

Anybody who really wants to make America great again should want to take us back to a situation where people are naturally guided towards healthy eating instead of unhealthy eating.

We can do that with progressive regulation of food commerce.

We can also do that by making sure that people earn liveable wages that don’t require them to work 2 jobs, etc.

Wages are stagnant and costs of living are continuing to increase.

People spend more and more of their time working to simply make ends meet. There are only so many hours in a day


Until we fix that…we are chasing our tails.

 

[LouC]

Anybody who really wants to make America great again should want to take us back to a situation where people are naturally guided towards healthy eating instead of unhealthy eating.

We can do that with progressive regulation of food commerce.

We can only do that with progressive regulation of food education.

 

[Lovebug]

We can also do that by making sure that people earn liveable wages that don’t require them to work 2 jobs, etc.

Wages are stagnant and costs of living are continuing to increase.

People spend more and more of their time working to simply make ends meet. There are only so many hours in a day


Until we fix that…we are chasing our tails.

Don't forget food deserts.

 

[BirdinHand]

We can only do that with progressive regulation of food education.

Or…we can do that by helping Americans be able to afford to live while working one job instead of multiple.

 

[Michael Cole]

Anybody who really wants to make America great again should want to take us back to a situation where people are naturally guided towards healthy eating instead of unhealthy eating.

We can do that with progressive regulation of food commerce.

Manipulating markets with taxation is the opposite of "naturally guided."

 

[BirdinHand]

Don't forget food deserts.

Yep. Which become more of an obstacle due to individuals not having the time to travel outside them.

No one gets more than 24 hours in a day.

The more money a person has - the more they can mitigate that constraint by “outsourcing”domestic labor.

If you can’t afford to outsource domestic labor, such as shopping and cooking - then time becomes more and more of a barrier.

 

[The Populist Right]

It actually is cheaper to prepare your own meals from produce and fresh meat. The issue with that is time. A lot of people don't have the time, especially people with small kids.

And it's a myth that obesity raises health care costs because most don't grow old. IMO, we either need to give up on the idea of having licensed doctors or give up on for-profit health care. Having both is just daffy.

 

[craig]

An idea occurred to me.

That usually means I'm being visionary and if I voice it I will receive major blowback because so few people can visualize big picture issues and long range solutions spanning great lengths of time such as years and decades.

That's because we like in a world of 2 questions:

1. What's in it for me?
2. How soon can I get it?

Regardless of that, this idea strikes me as an ideal approach to our ridiculously high cost of health care.

Q: What does health care cost so much in the USA?

A: Because we get so sick.

If we had a healthier population, health care would cost less. (I hope people can at least visualize that.)

Q: How can we be healthier?

A: By eating better.

We do eat a lot of quick and easy food and it would be healthier if we ate more whole foods instead of the usual processed food. America was healthier before the advent of so much processed foods.

Q: Why do we eat so much processed food?

A: Because it's cheaper and easier than preparing whole foods from scratch.

But that is a kind of a conundrum. Logically, it would be cheaper to simply sell the raw unprocessed ingredients than it is to put the foods through an expensive energy-consuming process to get it to the point that it's full of preservatives, all looks exactly the same, has a longer shelf life, is packaged in fancy packaging, and it's easy to heat and eat. The reason is because of volume. Anything done in large volume is cheaper to sell and more profitable for agri-business than stuff that has a shorter shelf life and is not so easily marketed.

The dirty secret is the more processed the food is, the more profitable it is.

We can use that secret to make America healthier, extend lifespans, and reduce the cost of health care.

What we need to do is tax processed foods and use the proceeds to reduce the cost of whole foods. It's called regulating commerce. It's in the Constitution. We should do it.

When the price of foods more closely reflect the healthiness of foods in an inversely proportional way consumers will buy more whole foods and fewer processed foods. America will eat healthier. Americans won't get as sick. There will be less demand for health care and that will reduce the cost of health care.

How about paying people exercise?

 

[ttwtt78640]

The reason we don't do this is because government is bought; and there is big money to be made selling unhealthy highly processed foods.

1+1=2

Nope, the reason is that taxation of food (groceries?) is highly regressive. That’s why many states exempt groceries from sales taxation.

 

[MamboDervish]

An idea occurred to me.

That usually means I'm being visionary and if I voice it I will receive major blowback because so few people can visualize big picture issues and long range solutions spanning great lengths of time such as years and decades.

That's because we like in a world of 2 questions:

1. What's in it for me?
2. How soon can I get it?

Regardless of that, this idea strikes me as an ideal approach to our ridiculously high cost of health care.

Q: What does health care cost so much in the USA?

A: Because we get so sick.

If we had a healthier population, health care would cost less. (I hope people can at least visualize that.)

Q: How can we be healthier?

A: By eating better.

We do eat a lot of quick and easy food and it would be healthier if we ate more whole foods instead of the usual processed food. America was healthier before the advent of so much processed foods.

Q: Why do we eat so much processed food?

A: Because it's cheaper and easier than preparing whole foods from scratch.

But that is a kind of a conundrum. Logically, it would be cheaper to simply sell the raw unprocessed ingredients than it is to put the foods through an expensive energy-consuming process to get it to the point that it's full of preservatives, all looks exactly the same, has a longer shelf life, is packaged in fancy packaging, and it's easy to heat and eat. The reason is because of volume. Anything done in large volume is cheaper to sell and more profitable for agri-business than stuff that has a shorter shelf life and is not so easily marketed.

The dirty secret is the more processed the food is, the more profitable it is.

We can use that secret to make America healthier, extend lifespans, and reduce the cost of health care.

What we need to do is tax processed foods and use the proceeds to reduce the cost of whole foods. It's called regulating commerce. It's in the Constitution. We should do it.

When the price of foods more closely reflect the healthiness of foods in an inversely proportional way consumers will buy more whole foods and fewer processed foods. America will eat healthier. Americans won't get as sick. There will be less demand for health care and that will reduce the cost of health care.

Just another way to make war on the working poor, who haven't time to prepare food when they get home from their 2nd and 3rd jobs.

 

[Greenbeard]

An idea occurred to me.

That usually means I'm being visionary and if I voice it I will receive major blowback because so few people can visualize big picture issues and long range solutions spanning great lengths of time such as years and decades.

That's because we like in a world of 2 questions:

1. What's in it for me?
2. How soon can I get it?

Regardless of that, this idea strikes me as an ideal approach to our ridiculously high cost of health care.

Q: What does health care cost so much in the USA?

A: Because we get so sick.

If we had a healthier population, health care would cost less. (I hope people can at least visualize that.)

Q: How can we be healthier?

A: By eating better.

We do eat a lot of quick and easy food and it would be healthier if we ate more whole foods instead of the usual processed food. America was healthier before the advent of so much processed foods.

Q: Why do we eat so much processed food?

A: Because it's cheaper and easier than preparing whole foods from scratch.

But that is a kind of a conundrum. Logically, it would be cheaper to simply sell the raw unprocessed ingredients than it is to put the foods through an expensive energy-consuming process to get it to the point that it's full of preservatives, all looks exactly the same, has a longer shelf life, is packaged in fancy packaging, and it's easy to heat and eat. The reason is because of volume. Anything done in large volume is cheaper to sell and more profitable for agri-business than stuff that has a shorter shelf life and is not so easily marketed.

The dirty secret is the more processed the food is, the more profitable it is.

We can use that secret to make America healthier, extend lifespans, and reduce the cost of health care.

What we need to do is tax processed foods and use the proceeds to reduce the cost of whole foods. It's called regulating commerce. It's in the Constitution. We should do it.

When the price of foods more closely reflect the healthiness of foods in an inversely proportional way consumers will buy more whole foods and fewer processed foods. America will eat healthier. Americans won't get as sick. There will be less demand for health care and that will reduce the cost of health care.

Could give everyone a government-issued Fitbit and institute a new tax on people who don’t average 10,000 steps a day.

 

[LouC]

Or…we can do that by helping Americans be able to afford to live while working one job instead of multiple.

There is that as well as Lovebug's mention of food deserts.

It has to be a comprehensive multi prong approach, a lot of fixing needs to be done across the vast spectrum of our food circle.