Health report to recommend higher 'sin taxes'

A major health care report to be released by the Federal Government today is expected to call for higher taxes on cigarettes and alcohol.
The Preventative Health taskforce report has been with the Government for several months and is also likely to recommend plans to curb the rate of obesity in Australia, including changes to the way food is marketed and produced.
It is the third and final in a series of reports commissioned by the Government when it came to office. But the Government is yet to respond to any of them.
The Government is already facing calls to put whatever extra revenue is raised through higher taxes directly back into prevention measures.
It will be the second major health report put out in as many days, following yesterday's release of the draft of a National Primary Health care strategy.
The head of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Andrew Pesce, says there is a lot of overlap between the two areas and he wants today's report to recommend changes to funding for GPs and other health professionals.
"We need to identify funding models which allow GPs and health practitioners to spend the time with their patients, which currently isn't remunerated adequately, to make sure that they can incorporate good preventative health strategies into the healthcare plans for those people," he said.
Dr Pesce says the Government's response also needs to go beyond the idea of so-called "sin taxes" on cigarettes and alcohol.
"They are important, but they're old ideas and I think we're working on the law of diminishing returns in those areas," he said.
He says obesity is the next big challenge, with significant changes needed in the way food is sold to people.
"It's pretty obvious if you look around, that Australians are fatter, children are fatter, they need to be convinced to adopt the lifestyle changes."
The director of the Institute of Health Economics and Technology Assessment, Paul Gross, agrees that obesity should be the main target for a preventative health strategy.
He says the Government will need to consider more creative solutions, rather than just raising taxes.
"Elsewhere in the world, governments, employers and others are offering incentives to individuals to lose weight, and they are losing weight and holding their weight loss," he said.
"We haven't even tried that yet."
But he says any money raised through higher taxes must be quarantined for prevention programs to ensure they are adequately funded.
"People might pay more for something where they can see what the use of the money might be," he said.
"But they will not be happy if we just hit people with cigarette taxes and alcohol taxes where the revenue is used in some way they can't see."
Along with the National Hospitals and Health Reform Commission Report, the Government now has three reviews of the health system awaiting its response.
But with the Henry review of taxation not due until the end of this year, any decision on new preventative measures may take some time.
The health reports will be considered by state and federal governments at a Coalition of Australian Governments meeting next month.