DOCTORS: SLUG THE SLUGS

MEDICOS WANT TO END OBESITY WITH FAT TAX

GRANT MCARTHUR DOCTORS want fat taxes and even consideration of higher insurance and other costs for the obese to combat operating rooms overrun with supersized patients.

Serving food in smaller sizes has also been mooted.

And it’s claimed some who are overweight are already paying higher airline fares as a disincentive for being fat.

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 exercise and surgery cannot solve Australia’s obesity epidemic, leading endocrinologist Prof John Prins said a raft of 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 may be too simplistic on its own, Prof Prins said disincentives such as higher health and life insurance premiums and airline fares increasingly occurring may play a part.

Removing the GST on some healthy foods and re- stricting junk food advertising are all measures that need to be examined, the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists annual conference 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.

“The big risk is that it offends personal choice – some people are just quite happy about being fat and don’t want anybody to legislate against it.”

“Personal health and insurance etc is already indirectly taxed according to your weight. We have heard about the cost of airline tickets, so there may be a variety of indirect measures.”

Speaking at the annual scientific meeting of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists 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.

Having seen morbidly obese patients grow to become half of his Queensland practise, Dr Remedios said weight limits had to be considered for endoscopic procedures, which are undertaken inside a patient guided by a camera.

With risk factors, costs and the difficulty rising when trying to treat patients endoscopically, Dr Remedios said it needed to be decided if those with a BMI over 40 should be referred for more invasive surgery under general anaesthetic, or even whether they should have procedures at all.

SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST QUITE HAPPY ABOUT BEING FAT AND DON’T WANT ANYBODY TO LEGISLATE AGAINST IT ENDOCRINOLOGIST JOHN PRINS