by Dr. James Stewart, Family Physician, North Bay.
With the constant hand-wringing and doom and gloom healthcare spending news, there is one scenario that is not getting near the attention it deserves. Obesity. It is approaching epidemic proportions and, left unaddressed, is all but guaranteed to negatively impact our healthcare budgets and further burden our healthcare system. Certainly, the topic of obesity does make into various news stories, often in health or lifestyle sections of the news outlets. And ask anyone with a weight problem if they want to lose weight, they will be undoubtedly tell you they do. However, it’s not easy, especially as people get older. As the boomer generation ages, obesity is an epidemic waiting to happen. It should be no surprise that the promise of helping people lose weight is a multi-billion dollar industry.
The motive for wishing to lose weight is often appearance. However, the motive for me as a family doctor to encourage patients not to just lose weight but avoid gaining it, is a health issue. Obesity can lead to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, strokes and hypertension.The associated healthcare costs for treating these illnesses is not insignificant. This, like so many health issues in our society, is often, preventable. The adage, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” in this case is an understatement.
However, according to research conducted by the Sports Matters Group (“a national organization dedicated to advancing the role of sports in public policy”…their words) only 1% of national healthcare budgets is spent on prevention programs.
There have been discussions and efforts made to introduce what has been labelled a ‘fat tax”…tax on products that are known to contribute to weight gain. Fast food and soft drinks are prime examples. Obviously, the corporations in these industries have a lot to lose if that manner of taxation is actually introduced. Understandably, they fight it. So what we have, in my opinion, is an industry that profits from products that can create health problems while we have passed on the healthcare costs of treating these problems to taxpayers.
This is something that warrants action. We are familiar with what is referred to as ‘sin tax’ (taxes placed on cigarette and alcohol products, both creating a significant impact on healthcare costs. There are pending lawsuits against the tobacco industry for this reason).
If another industry markets products known to create health problems, why should Ontario’s taxpayers bear the financial burden placed on our healthcare system resulting from consumption of the products?
As a family doctor, I can assure you, nothing gives me greater satisfaction than having healthy patients. However, we all get sick from time to time and some of us develop chronic and at times, debilitating illnesses. Illness and disease are never ‘fair’. After all, who deserves to become ill? Taxing unhealthy products more heavily would drive their costs up and might drive consumers to more healthy choices.
