Doctors Propose 18% ‘Pizza Tax’ to Fight Obesity, Offset Health-Care Costs
From Slice If such a plan were enacted, a $2.75 slice in NYC, for instance, would jump 50¢ to $3.25. Science Daily recently reported that researchers have recommended the use of surcharges (taxes and fees) on unhealthy food items like pizza and soda to help offset the nearly $150 billion a year the U.S. government spends on health care issues related to obesity. Doctors Mitchell H. Katz and Rajiv Bhatia published an article titled “Food Surcharges and Subsidies: Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is” on Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine . The two suggest that raising the cost of or specially taxing food items that are high in saturated fats and sugar will have consumers thinking twice before making unhealthy meal choices. Their recommendation is an 18% tax on such items. On a $2.75 slice (an average price point for slices in NYC), that would translate to a 50¢ surcharge. On a large pepperoni pizza from Domino’s ($13.05), that’s an extra $2.35. This tax would be similar to the cigarette tax that some states have in place in an attempt to reduce smoking. For example, New York State places a …
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Tags: article-titled, daily, Endless, expenses, institutions, medicine, nyc, obesity, pepperoni, result, surcharge, unhealthy
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