Peter, research covered in today's Telegraph suggesting healthy people cost the taxpayer most in medical bills puts a huge hole in the "long-term consequences that will be visited upon the taxpayer for decades to come" argument:
Because [healthy people] tend to live longer, the savings that they make the state in youth and middle age are wiped out by the high cost of dealing with lingering diseases of old age like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. By contrast smokers - who pour millions extra into government coffers by purchasing cigarettes - cost the state the least because they tend to die younger. According to the research, a person of normal weight costs on average £210,000 over their lifetime, a smoker just £165,000 and an obese person £187,000.
That tackling obesity may lead to higher NHS bills isn't for me a decisive argument against doing so. While I wouldn't myself dismiss principled arguments against this type of government intervention as 'reactionary nonsense', I'd actually rather like to see something done about childhood obesity in the abstract.
For me the question is more a practical one: I don't think anyone honestly has a clue what the government can do about it. Right now I fear efforts in this direction may "waste millions failing to deal with problem" whoever is in government.
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