Doctors call for fat tax, increase insurance premiums to fight obesity crisis

Grant McArthur
May 14, 2017
Herald Sun

DOCTORS want fat taxes and even consideration of higher insurance and other costs for the obese as operating rooms are overrun by supersized ­patients.

Serving smaller portions of food has also been proposed.

And it is claimed some who are overweight are already paying higher airfares as a disincentive for being fat.

130KG BOY’S LONG WEIGHT FOR CRUCIAL SURGERY

With two-thirds of their ­patients overweight or obese, doctors addressing one of Australia’s largest gatherings of specialists also raised the ­prospect of a weight limit for some procedures to safeguard against increasingly common and dangerous complications.

Warning that exercise and surgery could not solve Australia’s obesity epidemic, leading endocrinologist Prof John Prins said obesity legislation was needed to control the nation’s unhealthy food habits, though he conceded “nobody is courageous enough to do it”.

While he said a sugar or fast-food tax might be too ­simplistic on its own, Prof Prins said disincentives such as higher health and life insurance premiums and higher airfares might play a part.

Removing the GST on some healthy foods and restricting junk-food advertising were all measures that needed to be examined, the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists annual conference in Brisbane heard.

“If you don’t think it will work, think pool fences, ­seatbelts etc,” Prof Prins said. “Everybody knows it probably should be done, but nobody knows how to do it.”

He said such measures “are more punitive in a sense, but it’s like when you build a new tunnel and the only people who pay for the tunnel are the people who drive through it”.

At the ANZCA’s annual scientific meeting, endocrinologist Dr Matthew Remedios also pushed the case for legislation, but said a single ­intervention such as a sugar tax would not work on its own.

Limiting portion sizes, restricting advertising and the way food packaging was displayed could all play a role.

Having seen morbidly obese patients grow to become half of his Queensland practice, Dr Remedios said weight limits had to be considered for endoscopic procedures.

With risk factors, costs and difficulties when trying to treat patients endoscopically, he said colleagues needed to decide if those with a BMI over 40 should be referred for more invasive surgery under general anaesthetic, or even whether they should have surgery at all.

“What is the point? I will have a patient who is 160kg, they are on dialysis for their diabetes, they have no legs, and they are asking me to do a colonoscopy for constipation,” Dr Remedios said. “We have five of them roll in every Friday … often people who are 120, 130, 140, 150, 160kg.”