Is there such a thing as Fat Tax?
I think there was some suggestion that overweight people were a significant ‘drain’ on NHS resources and some wag was suggesting that ‘fatties’ should therefore pay higher NI contirbutions. I very much doubt that this will ever come to fruition; there are all sorts of discriminatory and human rights issues, as well as the difficulty in determining if someone is actually obese i.e the most common way is by measuring BMI, and most people would agree that BMI is innaccurate. Also, if you levy a higher amount of tax based on resources used within the NHS, what about alcohol-related illness and accidents and incidents, smoking-related disease, road traffic accidents. Should there similarly be a tax for everyone who drinks alcohol, smokers and drivers? Even though statistically these conditions do account for a significant amount of the NHS resources, it is far too contentious and inflammatory for any government with any desire to stay in office to contemplate.
