AMA removes support for ‘sin tax’ on sugary drinks

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDJun 22 2011

The American Medical Association (AMA) Tuesday afternoon removed its support from taxes on sugar-sweetened soft drinks, saying the concept needs more study. The AMA's policy-making House of Delegates this week debated the idea of supporting state and local taxation of “beverages with added sweeteners” as a way of fighting the nation's obesity epidemic and improving related education of the public.

Some in the panel however said the group might want to broaden the idea to include advocating for taxes on juices, high caloric drinks, artificial sweeteners and sugars. Delegates said more study is needed on a host of sweeteners before the group can make an educated advocacy stance.

Quite a few doctors said they were unlikely to support any taxes on sweetened beverages, saying they didn't favor “sin taxes” and opposed taxation as a way to influence consumer behavior. “If you tax the sugar in drinks, where does it stop,” a physician delegate from Indiana said Sunday.
The delegates also discussed healthcare insurance. On Monday the AMA reaffirmed its position that individuals should be responsible for buying health insurance, a contentious provision of U.S. healthcare reform.

The health reform law's requirement that everyone buy insurance is facing a legal challenge by 26 states that contend the government cannot compel citizens to engage in commerce.

At the meeting two-thirds of delegates voted to uphold the group's policy supporting individual responsibility for purchasing health insurance. Key insurance market reforms, such as ending denials of coverage based on pre-existing conditions, are only possible through broad participation in the health insurance market, said AMA President Dr. Cecil Wilson.

“The AMA's policy supporting individual responsibility has bipartisan roots, helps Americans get the care they need when they need it and ends cost shifting from those who are uninsured to those who are insured,” Wilson said.