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Vote YES for Prevention!
High-leverage prevention programs can have three big benefits: generate revenues to pay for health care, promote wellness, and lower health care costs.
A tax of seven cents per soft drink can would raise $10 billion per year to help pay for an expansion of healthcare coverage and help lower obesity rates, reducing the strain that obesity-related conditions place on America's sick-care system.
Similarly, boosting the liquor-tax rate by 50% and equalizing the tax on alcohol in beer and wine would raise $12 billion in new revenues per year. Federal alcohol taxes were last raised in 1991 and have dwindled with inflation since then. Higher taxes would cut problem drinking, provide revenues that could be used to expand sick-care coverage, and help reduce alcohol problems that lead to some $200 billion in medical and other societal costs each year.
Please contact your Representatives today and urge them to support these preventative health measures that could help pay for health care reform, while improving the health of Americans.
Thank you!
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Please support prevention programs that help pay for health care reform!
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
I strongly support a tax on non-diet soft drinks to raise revenue to help pay for health care reform and help reduce the obesity epidemic that is straining our health care system.
Soft drinks are the number-one source of calories in Americans' diets and a major cause of childhood obesity. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, each additional 12-ounce soft drink consumed per day increases the risk of obesity in children by 60 percent.
A tax of seven cents per 12-ounce serving of soda would raise about $10 billion a year, which could help pay for bike paths, basketball courts, water fountains, and media campaigns to promote healthier eating.
I also urge you to raise alcoholic beverage taxes, which have lost almost 40 percent of their value since they were last raised in 1991. Raising the liquor tax by 50 percent and then boosting beer and wine taxes to the same level (adjusted for lower alcohol content) would raise about $12 billion annually. That money could be used to pay for treatment programs and to help pay for health-care coverage for all Americans.
Thank you for consideration of these requests. Please inform me of your position on these issues.
Sincerely,
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Campaign Launched:
June 19, 2009
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