The
tax on sugar in foods like confectionery and ice cream would result in
1.2 additional years of healthy life per 100 alive people in 2010,
researchers from the Centre for Health Policy have found.
Lead researcher Dr Linda Cobiac said taxes on salt, saturated fat, and sugary drinks contributed the remaining health gain.
“Few other public health interventions could deliver such health gains on average across the whole population,” Dr Cobiac said.
Dr
Cobiac said while many Western countries are proposing or implementing
taxes to curb diet-related disease, policymakers have had little
information on the cost effectiveness of combining various taxes and
subsidies.
Co-author
Professor Tony Blakely said the research team also experimented with
different combinations of taxes and subsidies to ensure minimum
financial pain to households.
“Our
modelling shows Australia can achieve maximum health impact for less
than one per cent extra impact on household budgets,” Dr Blakely said.
“Critics
often say taxes on unhealthy food make life tougher for low
socio-economic households, but we’ve demonstrated that the right
structuring of incentives means the financial impact on households is
negligible, while their health improves.”
Dr
Blakely said while taxes on foods high in sugar, salt and saturated fat
generated the largest health gains, the benefits from a tax on sugary
drinks alone were still substantial.
“It is a good first policy step to make, and is supported by groups such as the Medical Colleges of Australia.”
The $3.4 billion saving would apply to the remaining lifetimes of all Australians alive in 2010.