Assignment 3 Health Planning Essay 2022

“Assignment 3 Health Planning Essay”
“Develop and Prioritize Strategies to introduce Sugar Tax at 40 cents per 100 grams of sugar
contained in sweetened beverages ”
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“Assignment 3 Health Planning Essay”
1. Introductory Statement
Healthcare planning is complicated. The strategy to improve facilities to satisfy future
public health requirements requires a strict, evidence-based strategy. As a possibly strong
policy action to enhance diets and decrease the burden of chronic illness in Australia, a
health tax on “sugar-sweetened beverages” (SSB's) might be implemented in order to
raise the retail price and lower consumption. Revenues collected through the levy could
be used for supporting healthy eating projects and healthy food subsidies, especially for
families with low socioeconomic position (SEP). The objective of this paper is to create
and prioritize approaches to implement a sugar tax levied in the sweetened drinks rate of
“40 cents per 100 grams of sugar”.
2. Planning Tools
a. Stakeholder Analysis
All stakeholders regard obesity as a combined social and personal problem (Vik, Stea,
Klepp, Bere & Bolt-Evensen, 2017) that could be under the supervision of Government.
Stakeholders from only economic front felt that the SSB's taxation and healthy snacks
would lower their consumption, while non-economists prevailed in their belief that a
higher tax would not bring down the consumption (Tamir, Cohen-Yogev, Furman-Assaf
& Endevelt, 2018). There have been concerns that the tax would impact people with low
socioeconomic backgrounds in particular. Some stakeholders said they would only
support such a tax if the government had income aimed at particular causes such as plans
to promote health (Tamir, Cohen-Yogev, Furman-Assaf & Endevelt, 2018). Potential tax
barriers include opposition from different industries, obstacles to technical and
bureaucratic taxation, difficulty defining which taxation products and the Treasury's

“Assignment 3 Health Planning Essay”
resistance to allocating tax income for education on healthcare (Tamir, Cohen-Jogev,
Assaf-Furman & Endevelt, 2018).
b. Needs Assessment
Sugar is a sort of carbohydrate that occurs naturally in goods like fruit and milk, and may
also be added to food and drink by the manufacturer or consumers. Sugars can be added
to the product not only for sweetness but also for functional purposes. Evidences show
that food sugar also leads to excess consumption of energy leading to obesity and
overweight (Morley, Martin, Niven & Wakefield, 2012). Evidence also shows that “52”
per cent of the Australians exceed the recommended WHO dietary intake, with the largest
sugar intake among adolescents and young adults. The bulk (“81 per cent”) of
consumption of free sugars in Australia is from' discretionary' foods and drinks, which
are dense and nutrient-poor. The major contributor to the free sugar in food pattern of the
Australian is sugar-sweetened beverages ("Department of Health | Fact Sheet - What are
the effects of consumption of high sugar drinks?", 2017). The incidence of these
conditions in Australia is examined as extra sugars have been connected to improper
weight gain and dental ailments. The causes of these two problems are complex and do
not relate to additional sugar intake consumption alone. In 2015 there was a “high body
mass index of 6.8%” of Australia's total disease component and it is the second major
risk factor contributing to overall disease component next to smoking burdens (“7.2%”)
("A picture of overweight and obesity in Australia", 2017). In Australia, the incidence of
obesity and overweight increased from “56.3% in 1995 to 63.4% (11.2 million people) in
2014-15” for Australians aged 18 and older. The percentage of children aged 5-17
improved in 2011-12, from “20. 9% in 1995 to 25.7%”, and remained steady for 2014-15

“Assignment 3 Health Planning Essay”
(27.4%) for children having age group between 5 to 17 years ("A picture of overweight
and obesity in Australia", 2017).
c. SWOT Analysis
The Australians would benefit from the “sugar tax” on soft beverages. The nutrition of
this type of drinks is irrelevant. Evidence suggests that people who are overweight are
more probable to be drinking this type of drinks ("A Sugary Drinks Tax", 2016). In this
country, the obesity epidemic is comparable to that in Great Britain. Australia must
follow the example of Britain and apply the “sugar tax” on soft beverages to reduce
obesity ("Tax sugary drinks to combat obesity, say doctors", 2013) and improve public
health ("Sugar Tax Debate in Australia: Should We Have One? | Canstar", 2016).
There are, however, certain limitations in designing the policy structure. When a
consumer or manufacture add extra sugar to food, it is said to contain "added sugars".
Sugars added externally to foods do not chemically vary from sugars naturally present in
fruits or milk and so analytically it is a challenge to differentiate between “added sugar”
and natural sugar. There is no definition of "added sugar" which is applied universally.
The “Australian dietary guidelines” (Roberto & Gorski, 2015) suggest restricting intake
of added sugars, though neither of these guidelines offers a clear definition of what added
sugars are (Backholer & Martin, 2018). It is found that the food and drinks particularly
in the category of fast food containing higher per cent in added sugars, has fewer
nutrients like vitamins and other minerals compared to homemade healthy food and
cannot displace healthy food in our diet (Huth, Fulgoni, Keast, Park & Auestad, 2013).
Sugar taxation in drinks is an effective step to decrease the intake of sugar. Evidence
demonstrates that a 20% higher “sugar tax” would reduce the number of sugar products