As the deep and serious consequences of obesity continue
to spread in Britain, the criticism of the government’s effort to tackle the
obesity epidemic also increases. In an attempt to suggest more aggressive tactics,
the think tank Demo has published a report where controversial recommendations
include a points system that rewards healthy behaviour.
According to the report, there ought to be incentives for
maintaining a healthy lifestyle that includes exercise and healthy eating.
These include: giving priority to non-emergency treatments to individuals who
are able to demonstrate that they exercise and eat healthily, for individuals
to earn points when they buy healthy groceries, and for individuals on benefits
to receive extra payments if they go to the gym.
While we understand the intention of the report is to
increase personal and collective responsibility in our society, it is hard to
see how these recommendations could be implemented. We do not agree that patients
should be prioritized according to their lifestyle, because ultimately the
treatment should be based on clinical need rather than political arguments.
Similarly, rather than giving individuals points that may or may not be used
some day, why not put pressure on the big chains to have offers and competitive
prices in place that encourage a healthier diet? But the recommendation that
angers us the most is to reward individuals on benefits for going to the gym.
This disregards the circumstances that bring many individual to receive benefits.
It is also rather ignorant of the obvious fact that gyms tend to be extremely
expensive, so some individuals may choose cost-effective types of exercise such
as running.
There is zero chance of any of this happening so there is
really no point in commenting further.