Why a tax on fizzy drinks would be a stealth attack on the NHS
There have been lots of proposals in the past to tax unhealthy food, particularly fizzy drinks. Just recently the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges has called for quite a lot of things that sound quite sensible to me. A ban on adverts for unhealthy food before the watershed is probably a good thing, and extra government money for weight loss surgery is a proactive thing to do in a supposedly increasingly tubby society. But there are a few things I'm not so sure on. Firstly, a ban on fast food outlets in hospitals sounds sensible at first, but I imagine the hospital in question rents its space out to McDonalds and Burger King at quite a high rate, so unless there's something else with which to fill the space, this might not be as clever as it sounds, financially speaking. But the biggest problem I have is with any suggestion to tax unhealthy food or drink.
To be honest, I have a real problem with anyone who moans at obese people for health reasons. You see shows all the time on Channel 4 showing the effects of over-eating, and they all contain the same claim: that over-eating is costing the NHS millions per year. That may be true, but if you use this argument to tax unhealthy food, surely there needs to be a tax on every football sold! After all, playing football increases your risk of pulled muscles, twisted ankles and even broken bones, which must cost the NHS quite a bit every year too. If you victimise fat people for costing the NHS money you must also victimise sportspeople, and people who work in high-risk jobs such as firefighters. Arguing that any one portion of the population is costing the NHS more money than another is completely missing the point of the NHS in the first place. Sure, we could charge people based on how high a risk they are according to their lifestyle, but if we were to do that we may as well scrap the NHS and everyone can sort out their own private medical insurance.
Of course I'd never suggest such a thing - I'm not fond of nationalism, but I do confess to having a certain amount of pride when I tell people that I live in a country where anyone, rich or poor, can see a doctor and get fixed if they need to. Health is something that simply cannot be left to the private sector, as their priority is to make money rather than making people better. If the NHS were to disappear there are large numbers of people, almost certainly some of whom you know and love, who would suddenly not have access to healthcare, either because they can't afford it, or because they have pre-existing conditions that make private medical insurers wary of covering them. I cannot stress this enough: we need the NHS. It is the single greatest thing about the UK.
National Insurance is a tax. It is paid by all who can afford to do so. In return for this tiny contribution, we get the NHS. If we start taxing people more likely to end up in hospital at a higher rate (and this includes taxing things that are considered unhealthy) then we're undermining the integrity of the NHS. Any one of us could end up needing urgent medical treatment tomorrow, and yes, many hospital visits could probably have been prevented if the circumstances were different. You may not have needed that stomach pump if you hadn't got drunk. You may not have needed that heart surgery if you'd have kept your weight down. You wouldn't have broken your leg had you not been playing football. The beauty of the NHS is that it doesn't care about blame, it just makes people better. That's a beautiful thing, let's not lose it.