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Framing health taxes: a scoping review

Health taxes are increasingly positioned as effective policy instruments for curbing non-communicable disease, improving health and raising government revenues. Their allure has caused many health advocates to look beyond tobacco and alcohol to other harmful products such as sugar-sweetened beverage...

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Autores principales: Koon, Adam D, Marten, Robert
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10565303/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37813439
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2023-012055
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author Koon, Adam D
Marten, Robert
author_facet Koon, Adam D
Marten, Robert
author_sort Koon, Adam D
collection PubMed
description Health taxes are increasingly positioned as effective policy instruments for curbing non-communicable disease, improving health and raising government revenues. Their allure has caused many health advocates to look beyond tobacco and alcohol to other harmful products such as sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), salty foods, fatty foods and fossil fuels. These efforts, however, directly conflict with commercial actors’ interests. Both pro-tax health advocates and anti-tax industry representatives seek to frame health tax policy in favourable ways. Yet, little is known about which types of frames resonate in which settings, or how they deploy morals and values in their attempts to persuade. To fill this gap, we conducted a scoping review on framing health taxes using six databases in 2022. A total of 40 peer-reviewed empirical research articles, from 2006 to 2022, were identified from 20 different countries. Most research was conducted in high-income countries, published in the last 4 years and increasingly focused on excise taxes for SSBs. Studies captured multiple actors constructing context-specific frames, often tied to broader economic, health and administrative considerations. Actors also engaged in a range of political activities in addition to framing. We found some evidence that anti-tax framing strategies potentially incorporated a broader array of morals and social values. More in-country comparative research, particularly from low/middle-income countries, is needed to understand the politics of framing health taxes. We argue that these insights can improve efforts to advance health taxes by constraining corporate power, improving population level health and promoting greater social harmony.
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spelling pubmed-105653032023-10-12 Framing health taxes: a scoping review Koon, Adam D Marten, Robert BMJ Glob Health Original Research Health taxes are increasingly positioned as effective policy instruments for curbing non-communicable disease, improving health and raising government revenues. Their allure has caused many health advocates to look beyond tobacco and alcohol to other harmful products such as sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), salty foods, fatty foods and fossil fuels. These efforts, however, directly conflict with commercial actors’ interests. Both pro-tax health advocates and anti-tax industry representatives seek to frame health tax policy in favourable ways. Yet, little is known about which types of frames resonate in which settings, or how they deploy morals and values in their attempts to persuade. To fill this gap, we conducted a scoping review on framing health taxes using six databases in 2022. A total of 40 peer-reviewed empirical research articles, from 2006 to 2022, were identified from 20 different countries. Most research was conducted in high-income countries, published in the last 4 years and increasingly focused on excise taxes for SSBs. Studies captured multiple actors constructing context-specific frames, often tied to broader economic, health and administrative considerations. Actors also engaged in a range of political activities in addition to framing. We found some evidence that anti-tax framing strategies potentially incorporated a broader array of morals and social values. More in-country comparative research, particularly from low/middle-income countries, is needed to understand the politics of framing health taxes. We argue that these insights can improve efforts to advance health taxes by constraining corporate power, improving population level health and promoting greater social harmony. BMJ Publishing Group 2023-10-09 /pmc/articles/PMC10565303/ /pubmed/37813439 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2023-012055 Text en © World Health Organization 2023. Licensee BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution IGO License (CC BY 3.0 IGO (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/) ), which permits use, distribution,and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In any reproduction of this article there should not be any suggestion that WHO or this article endorse any specific organization or products. The use of the WHO logo is not permitted. This notice should be preserved along with the article’s original URL.
spellingShingle Original Research
Koon, Adam D
Marten, Robert
Framing health taxes: a scoping review
title Framing health taxes: a scoping review
title_full Framing health taxes: a scoping review
title_fullStr Framing health taxes: a scoping review
title_full_unstemmed Framing health taxes: a scoping review
title_short Framing health taxes: a scoping review
title_sort framing health taxes: a scoping review
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10565303/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37813439
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2023-012055
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