Soda Tax Emerging as Major Medical Insurance Issue

A growing debate over proposals to tax soda and other sweetened beverages is emerging as a major medical insurance debate for lawmakers, consumers and healthcare professionals.

The debate may be heating up even more now that a new article in the New England Journal of Medicine is advocating a tax on soda. The article, penned by a group of medical doctors, notes that 33 states currently tax soda and other sweetened beverages at an average rate of 5.2 percent, although this is seen as insufficient to reduce consumption of the product.

The article acknowledges popular opposition to such a tax but also cites the possibility that it could help reduce rates of diabetes and obesity, especially in children.

"Reducing caloric intake by 1 [percent] to 2 [percent] per year would have a marked impact on health in all age groups, and the financial burden on those who consumed small amounts of sugar-sweetened beverages would be minimal," write the doctors.

A tax on soda is also seen as an opportunity to raise the revenues that will be needed to pay for proposed sweeping reforms to the healthcare system.

While the proposed tax is seen as politically risky, current revenue shortfalls at the state and federal levels, along with rising health costs, guarantee that this is a major medical insurance debate that will not go away soon.