March 12, 2013 
There are lots of fundamental issues here:
- Was the law legal?
- Does soda make you fat?
- Should the government be able to steer you to positive choices?
- Did this impact our freedom?
At the end of the day, I look at it very differently. I think the proposed ban was great. I was very annoyed last night to find out it was overturned.
Why?
- I don’t see this as any different than moving unhealthy foods to a less obvious place in the food line at school. It simply was meant to help steer people to make healthier decisions. We should all be thankful for someone helping us since we generally don’t seem to be able to help ourselves.
- Government has to be run like a business. (It usually isn’t.) Obesity is a big driver of costs. It requires more power for public transportation. It requires bigger chairs. It requires bigger hospital beds. It requires bigger ambulances. And, all of us taxpayers pay for this.
- 80% of healthcare costs are driven by personal decisions that we make mostly around diet and exercise. Since most people will end up on Medicare at some point, we need to change the cost curve in healthcare sooner rather than later. Otherwise, we either bankrupt our country or we bankrupt Medicare.
So, enjoy your big 64 oz soda now, but when you’re 69 and Medicare has been rolled back to 70 due to funding challenges, you can smile and remember that you got to enjoy all that sugar for years without anyone trying to help you. (I can picture a great political cartoon here of the patient getting a healthcare bill looking over their shoulder from their wheelchair to see a big pile of soda cups!) Never mind the fact that you’re bankrupt due to your healthcare bills and not able to walk around to keep up with your grandkids.
Source: top-nursing-programs.com
Enabling Healthy Decisions 