Time For A Fat Tax: Obesity

Time For A Fat Tax: Obesity Obesity has been a growing worldwide problem for the past three decades, especially in European countries and the United States of America. Between 1980 and 2004, the prevalence of obesity in Europe and the USA doubled, from 15% to 32%. At the moment in Britain, most adults are overweight and one-third of all Americans are obese (Yaniv, Rosin Tobol, 2009). All over the world, one billion adults are overweight, 300 million are obese and 17.6 million children under five are considered to be too heavy for their age and height (Smed, Jensen Denver, 2007). A person is classified as obese when his or her BMI is 30 or more. The Body Mass Index, a measure of body composition, is calculated by taking a ratio of weight in kilograms to height in meters squared. The higher the outcome, the more overweight a person is. In contrast, a healthy person is classified with a BMI within the range of 20-25 and someone with a BMI of 25-30 is classified as overweight (Leicester Windmeijer, 2007). Why is obesity such a problem? In the first place, it is because obesity is a key determinant for many chronic conditions and it is considered to shorten life expectancy to a remarkable degree. Our changing dietary habits are leading to chronic diseases, which makes obesity a social problem. Chronic conditions which are influenced by obesity are high blood pressure (hypertension), type-2 diabetes, heart and lung diseases, cerebrovascular diseases and several types of cancer (Yaniv, Rosin Tobol, 2009). It is expected that the number of afflicted diabetic people will double the upcoming years. By 2025, in developed countries, 370 million people will be diabetic and 75% of all global death rates will result from heart diseases (Lavrance, 2009). Secondly, overweight causes not only somatic, but mental problems as well. According to Gregory et al., (2006) it has been linked to other mental health problems such as depression, anxiety disorders and other psychiatric disorders. Data from this study also suggests an association between obesity and low self-esteem, feelings of shame and guilt and feelings of inadequacy. Therefore, obese people are at increased risk for social isolation. It is reasonable to believe that obese people are targets of teasing and verbal abuse and that these people suffer from discrimination, for instance in workplaces (Gregory et al., 2006). Furthermore, obesity is an economic problem. Among developed countries, obesity accounts for 2-6% of the total health care costs (Smed, Jensen Denver, 2007). In the United States of America, the costs of obesity nowadays amount to at least 117 billion dollars each year. These costs are borne by governments, health care organizations and insurance companies. These data represent only direct medical costs, such as health care services related to obesity, including surgery, medication and treatment of complications (Yaniv, Rosin Tobol, 2009). In addition, as a result of loss of productivity and income losses due to morbidity and mortality, true costs are believed to be much higher. There are also indirect related costs, including chronic diseases associated with obesity and costs due to exercise programs and dietary modifications. These indirect and related costs are borne by employers and the obese individuals themselves (Yaniv, Rosin Tobol, 2009). In conclusion, in all European countries, overweight and obesity are major health problems. They are risk factors for social, personal and economic problems as well. It is believed that this growing trend of obesity is likely to continue. An instrument that is believed to stop this growing trend and reduce overweight and obesity and the consequences named above, is a fax tax. A fat tax is based on the assumption that when the price of goods goes up, consumption of that good lowers. The idea of a fat tax has been supported by several public health organizations (e.g., the World Health Organization) and governments in various countries (Smed, Jensen Denver, 2007). According to Yaniv, Rosin Tobol (2009), bringing in a fat tax can be done in two ways: 1) by taxing foods according to the percentage of fat they contain and 2) by taxing foods that are fattening and unhealthy, mainly junk or fast food (e.g., French fries, snacks, pizzas and soft drinks (Yaniv, Rosin Tobol, 2009). However, only a few papers have addressed the influence of a fat tax on specific food and drinks that cause overweight. The question arises if a tax on specific food and drinks that cause overweight, called a fat tax, could stop this trend? Or does it only affect specific groups in society? This essay analyses the effects of using a fat tax in Europe and the USA as an economic instrument to reduce overweight and obesity. It is hypothesized that a fat tax would not reduce obesity or stop the growing trend. A tax for fat people: The study of Yaniv, Rosin Tobol (2009) shows that current medical costs as a result from obesity rival the costs that are attributable to smoking. Is it time to bring in fat taxes on food and drinks, to improve the health of the population? Lavrance (2009) suggests that a fat tax is more effective than public health campaigns which are used nowadays. In his opinion, cigarette consumption has reduced over the past ten years as a direct consequence of raised tobacco taxes. Another argument Lavrance (2009) comes up with, is that a fat tax would probably help to redevelop the budgets in health care in the same way the tobacco taxes have been doing. But does the tobacco tax really work that well? Each year, five million people are still dying as a result from smoking tobacco, particularly people who are used to live in low and middle income countries (World Health Organization, 2011). Furthermore, while drinking alcohol is becoming more and more expensive, the consuming alcohol rate is roughly the same or higher than a few years ago in European countries. These counter-arguments are show that such social problems are too complex to simply state that a tax is the most effective and efficient way to improve health in society. Another point of view is that the implementation of a fat tax, in contrast to taxes on tobacco and alcohol, is not as easy as it seems to be. Fats can be classified as saturated and unsaturated. Not all fats are the same. We can conclude that different types of fat have different effects on peoples health. To exemplify, butter contains unsaturated fats that increases the level of good cholesterol. In contrast, some dairy products such as cheese, may contain high levels of saturated fats, which increases the levels of bad cholesterol (Chouinard, Davis, LaFrance Perloff, 2007). This makes it hard to decide which products must be taken into account for a fat tax. In other words, who would decide what is fat and what is unhealthy. Obesity as a society problem: Another argument for bringing in the tax, is the fact that an unhealthy lifestyle of one citizen, including fat eating and minimal exercise, imposes economic burdens on the rest of society, for example tax-payers or employers (Smed, Jensen Denver, 2007). Leicester Windmeijer (2007) believe that a fat tax can be used to influence individuals choices in a way to bring the outcome closer to the socially desirable standard. A specific tax on foods that contain too much fat aims to discourage unhealthy diets for people who could not, or would not, make that choice by their own. Some people in society already accepted that people who are too overweight to fit in one seat of an airplane, should have to pay more for the same flight, so it stands to reason that these people must pay for consequences in society too. Mann (2008), however, is wondering if there is any possibility that the social costs of obesity are not as high as one might think. In addition, a closer look at the health care costs show that there are also positive social effects of obesity. Overweight and obese people die earlier than people of normal weight and therefore are shorter dependent on health services. If a fat tax changes the unhealthy lifestyle of obese people into a healthy lifestyle, it will probably have an impact on society. Presumably, these people would live longer, which makes them in their elderly days more dependent on health services. More important, what about people that are underweight, such as anorexics, and therefore need medical help? In contrast, there are obese people who never use medical care in their life. Besides that, what about all other groups in society who impose economic burdens on the rest of society? After asking ourselves these questions, we see that there are also some discriminatory issues in the case of implementing a fat tax. On the other hand, if we tax something that is unhealthy, preventing more people from buying it, it could lead to more than one positive effect. A side effect would possibly be that food producers will make their products significant healthier, which is an advantage for the whole society. Nevertheless, if these food producers are punished because their popular fat products are labeled as unhealthy or fat, this can also lead to loss of jobs and unemployment at these corporations as a result of less income. Above all, a tax on fat foods or products will also affect people who already have a healthy lifestyle. Everybody will be taxed in the same way, so the whole society including the poor, elderly or people that need to eat extra calories sometimes are paying more for these products, not only obese or overweight people. More than a rational choice: The idea of a fat tax enjoys growing support by the World Health Organization, governments, in public health services and in insurance companies. A study of Schroeter, Lusk Tyner (2007) utilizes a microeconomic model to investigate the impact of price changes on body weight. This study shows us that when a consumer has to make a choice between two complementary products, a high- and a low- calorie food, a tax on high-calorie food leads to weight decrease. Several other models are suggesting that a small tax lowers intake of fat in such a way that is profitable for the modern society. In contrast, experimental research data from Chouinard, Davis, LaFrance Perloff (2007) suggests that a 50 percent tax lowers a fat intake by 3 percent. They used a supermarket scanner data to estimate the effects of taxing the fat content in food products on different demographic groups. Their conclusion is, that elderly and poor suffer the most from welfare losses. For example, a family earning 20.000 dollar a year or a household containing only seniors, suffers nearly twice the welfare loss of a family earning 100.000 dollar a year or consumers who are younger than thirty. Also, the paper of Schmidhuber (2004), which analyzed currently discussed policy options to reduce body weight, shows us that almost all price interventions are likely to be efficient, but only for poor and elderly consumers. Obese and overweight people are the least responsive to increasing food prices and therefore will not alter their consumption pattern. The paper of Yaniv, Rosin Tobol (2008) addresses the fat tax within a food-intake rational-choice model. The results suggest that for a non-weight conscious individual a fat tax will undoubtedly reduce obesity. More important, the results show that for a weight-conscious individual, especially when this person is physically active, a fat tax may increase overweight. This is because the weight-conscious individual will cook more at home with healthy ingredients and will become less physical active, as a result of the reduced time due to the time spend on cooking (Yaniv, Rosin Tobol, 2008). Besides all named above, there are more factors that influence individuals choices and development. How individuals become obese depends on individual considerations, based on the information one has about side effects of obesity, the amount of this information, considerations about costs and about the benefits (Mann, 2008). Environmental factors are also important in the development of overweight and obesity, such as the family or environment in which a child is growing up and the place of work. Besides that, there is also an genetic component involved in the development of obese, which raises the question if we could punish people for that fact.

Distractions: Classroom and Facebook Essay

Electronics is one of the main and worst distractions. Cell phones, laptops, desktop, and various other electronics are some of just a few distractions that take place in the class room, But the biggest one I think is laptops. People use laptops in the classroom to take notes, plan there day, and to do work on, but after a while it can those same usefulness can become a distraction. A lot of professors and instructors have decided to ban laptops from the classroom because people tend to lose focus with laptops in front of them. They start to go off and do other things like on Facebook or YouTube. This can become a big problem because they not paying attention so they don’t know what’s going on with the lesson which can affect what students might need to do for homework or what they need to study for that big test coming up. They not only are a distraction to the person using it but also a distraction to people around them. The typing may become annoying to a neighbor who may need to focus. Some professors find them a really distracting the typing and students seem to find more interest in the computer then in the lesson. Along with Cell phones, Laptops are becoming banned from classrooms due to the distraction to the person that uses them, their peers, and their professor. Laptops are just one of many distractions in the classroom and is one of the worst and main distractions along with cell phones and various other electronics that cause distractions.

Critique of the Ethical Issue Essay

Every profession is subject to different ethical considerations. In response, professions present code of conduct to their employees to guide their behavior in the organization. Formal ethical training is also held to make the employees aware of different ethical issues. Ethical decision making process enable the workforce to handle every ethical issue and prevents them from making any ethical lapses whatsoever. US healthcare system comprises many branches that offer unique health related services to clients. Furthermore the healthcare is split into a hierarchical setup which starts from nursing to the top physicians. Each individual related to the US health care has to undergo a lot of training and education before he/she is authorized to discharge any duty. A fundamental part of this coaching involves ethical training which guides the employees ways and means of dealing with different ethical problems. Conflicts faced by the healthcare are of many types. To start with, physicians fail to work as a team with nurses. Sometimes nurses do not understand their roles and discharge their duties improperly. Other kinds of conflicts involve patients. These conflicts can usually become very serious and can even become unlawful in nature. Articulating the Problem The ethical conflict that arose in my studies involved a doctor and his patient. Jimmy suffered from high fever and he decided to go to a new doctor, Dr. Bill, as his general physician was out of town on vacation. Jimmy reported all his conditions to Dr. Bill. Dr. Bill made some notes and then warned him that he might be in fear of suffering from typhoid (a severe form of fever). Jimmy was very shocked to hear this. The doctor further added that it would be better for Jimmy to remain in hospital care for at least two days before his condition improved. He also asked him to run some tests which would be needed to clearly diagnose his sickness. When Jimmy heard of the high amount they were charging him, he was highly shocked and left the clinic. Jimmy called his physician up and informed him of the entire issue. Dr. Andrew told him to get a check-up from another doctor who was his friend. Jimmy went there and after the checkup, he received another surprise upon hearing that the fever was not serious and he’d be perfect in two days. He was given some prescription which he was to take. In two days time, Jimmy perfectly recovered from his fever and, by then, realized how Dr. Bill had tried to deceive him into getting the tests and hospital care in order to make more money. The event is, by all means, shocking and unethical. Dr. Bill and those of his like are ruining the sanctity of the medical profession by converting it into any other business profession. It is certainly not unethical to offer your services and expertise to others in return for money. However, intimidating patients by telling them of symptoms which, in fact, they do not possess is certainly very unethical. This trend is quickly spreading everywhere, especially online. After doing some research, the author found that there are many health care services which are presently being offered online. Though some of these setups are highly professional in nature and offer very effective services online, the rest are merely scammers. What’s more problematic is that individuals do not know how expert the physician is in his/her respective field. Looked at it this way, we’re all in a big risk whenever we decide to get ourselves checked up from a new doctor. As far as the scammers are concerned, their deceptive marketing campaigns allure the sick and the injured into asking for help. They make false claims that their products will change their lives or make them better. By the time the poor people find out that they’ve been deceived, it is too late to do anything because such institutions and individuals protect themselves through different legislations of the law. Gathering Data After thorough research and data collection, the author has come up with following important ways of checking the credentials as well as ratings of a physician along with ways of preventing health care frauds. 1. Information about doctor’s experience and training is obtained from his office or local medical society in which the doctor is a member. 2. There are some state licensing boards that also issue information about disciplinary actions taken against a particular physician. However, it is not very easy to get information from there. 3. American Medical Association’s AMA Physicians Select offers information on training and certification of all the medical and osteopathic physicians who are currently holding a license in the US. However, disciplinary actions are not included with them. 4. American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Certified Doctor Verification Service can also be utilized to check whether the physician is certified by one or the 24 recognized specialty boards. The service is free of charge. 5. Googling out for more info is also not a bad idea. You will find several options wherein to check the report/credibility of a physician. 6. There are several government sources which may be used to obtain information relating to disciplinary action. Of these, the two most important sources are the National Practitioner Data Bank and the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank. 7. Many clinics and hospitals also offer options to check their doctors’ credentials. However, this is not a good idea because hospitals would never reveal that any one of their doctors is of low quality. Exploring Strategies It is, indeed, very difficult to carve a strategy that would clearly identify and tackle the above situation. Practical issues of these kinds are indeed very different from theoretical knowledge that is offered in books. However, following procedures may help prevent such situations in future. From Profession’s perspective 1. Establishing a federal committee on healthcare fraud prevention, and having it carry out a detailed wipe-out of all such fraudulent institutions and individuals 2. Exercise rigorous ethical training program, stressing the consequences of deceiving and holding the truth in the medical profession 3. Conducting regular external audits on different health care facilities, with an aim to identify the scammers 4. Publicizing and penalizing doctors who conduct such activities From Patient’s Perspective 1. Organizing a wide marketing campaign instructing the individuals to be wary of such scammers 2. Avoiding new doctors 3. Fixing the medical charges offered at various institutions, so the competition is not price-based but quality based. 4. Having another review with another physician if instructed to undergo very expensive treatment. Implementing the Strategy In order to implement the above discussed strategy, the following needs to be done: 1. Give the event a wide coverage on popular media 2. Create mass-awareness through the media 3. Instruct masses to avoid online health care facilities as much as possible unless they know the physician personally. 4. Write to the American Medical Association and other medical authorities, asking them to address the issue on federal level. 5. Increasing word-of-mouth, and making all such frauds public 6. Conducting nation-wide survey of physicians’ credentials Evaluating the Outcomes Implementing the above strategy would have the following pros and cons: Pros 1. Efficient and appropriate health care only by physicians who have sound credentials and ratings 2. Lesser frauds and scams in the health care 3. Better opportunities for physicians who’ve worked their way up 4. An overall better impact on the health of US nationals 5. Better medical infrastructure Cons 1. High investment is required to create the mass-awareness 2. It is not possible to identify every physician who is conducting fraud 3. It is difficult to decide whether a physician is diagnosing a patient sincerely or not as different physicians come up with different diagnosis measures REFERENCES Percival, Thomas. Medical ethics. (pp. 49–57) from http://books. google. com/books? id=yVUEAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=medical+ethics&as_brr=1&ie=ISO-8859-1#PPA52,M1. Walter, Klein (ed). The Story of Bioethics: From seminal works to contemporary explorations Jordan, M. C. (1998). Ethics manual. Fourth edition. American College of Physicians (pp. 23-30) Beauchamp, Tom L. , Childress, James F. (2001). Principles of Biomedical Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press. Margaret A. Burkhardt, Alvita Nathaniel (2007) Ethics and Issues in Contemporary Nursing

My Exercise On My Muscle Strength - 1148 Words

My muscle strength is nearly gone, I do not know how much longer I can hold my body in this position, and sweat is falling from my face like rain in a hot jungle. My tiny, blonde torturer is exceptionally sadistic this evening. I imagine that she has harnessed all of her day’s spite in order to exude it upon me with the calm, controlled voice of a person completely at peace with her actions. It is at this moment that I begin to second-guess my decision to take up hot yoga. The benefits of the practice are clear: increased flexibility, mental focus, core strength, and protection from injury. All good things, but am I tough enough to make it through the severe discomfort of this initial learning curve, to see the results in myself†¦show more content†¦The misconception about flexibility is that improvement only comes from forcing the body into positions of increased range of motion. In reality, it is less about active force and more about releasing control and all owing the body move into extended positions. â€Å"The ability to relax a muscle group is an important part of flexibility; the ultimate expression of this is seen during general anesthesia† (Rippetoe, Baker, Bradford, 2013). General anesthesia being impractical for regular flexibility improvement, yogis rely on position holds and focused breathing to distract the mind and nervous system from the ridged control they usually have on the body. Recovery drill exercises are very similar to yoga poses, the most obvious of which is the extend and flex which is a â€Å"by-the-numbers† version of upward-facing dog flowing into downward-facing dog. With this association in mind, it is a simply a matter of educating Soldiers on how to get the most benefit out of recovery drill exercises, directing that these exercises be held for the full 30 seconds available and possibly cueing their breathing patterns to keep them focused. Increased flexibility allows the body to reach fu ll ranges of motion and a body operating in the full range of motion is potentially less likely to be injured. Approximately 98 percent of injuries are avoidable, caused by lack of range of motion and improper movements. The twoShow MoreRelatedThe Strength Test Of The Cardiovascular Endurance Test My Heart Beat1480 Words   |  6 Pages1. So what were your scores? Were there any surprises? How so? (5 pts) Some of my scores did not surprise me but they were disappointing. During the cardiovascular endurance test my heart beat was 119 beats per minute. 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