During these marvelous times for the Liberal Democrats we must capitalize on our success! Having always been the party with creative and effective ideas we must push the new government for the following:
Question: Reforming the NHS with no extra cash?
Answer: Reduce the need for preventable and expensive care in the first place by
making people healthier.
How: Introduce a supermarket-like loyalty card with healthy food discounts.
Cloud Cuckoo Land?
No – effecting change using the stick rarely works, but nudging or incentivizing does. Supermarkets get us to remain with them instead of switching, by offering discounts on their products using loyalty cards. Could the Government take a leaf out of their book, make the population healthier and consequently save money on health care?
How would the scheme work?
Obesity followed by diabetes occurs widely in society at the moment and costs the NHS billions. The poorest in society are particularly susceptible because they either can’t afford healthy food or don’t have the time or incentive to cook healthily. If this group could be targeted with a government loyalty card scheme which offered sufficient discounts on healthy foods to make them affordable, this would kill two birds with one stone: help to alleviate food poverty in low income families and at the same time nudge people towards more healthy eating.
Aiming this scheme at those on a low income would be highly cost effective because they are the least able to afford healthy food and are the group with the most obesity (39% women in the most deprived areas compared to 22% in the most affluent ones). In any supermarket instead of prices being offered at normal Nectar or Tesco special prices, for example, these could be Nectar Plus and Tesco Plus for this deprived group. The customer, as at present, would register with whichever supermarket they wanted and their details checked against HMRC or DHSS records to assess their income or benefits. The government would then give the supermarket a tax or VAT incentive to lower the price for these customers only (the supermarkets already have extensive sales data which could be used to record these special prices).
As with any legislation, checks and balances would be needed to prevent improper use. But I am sure parliament, especially with so many new Liberal Democrats, is well qualified to scrutinize and enact effective changes if required.
What are the benefits?
The NHS spends £10 billion a year on diabetes (about 10% of its entire budget). Clearly, enacting this scheme would not save all of this but it might still save a high proportion which could then be used to pay for the customer discounts and at the same time free up hospital beds and waiting times. The foods to be included would be specific rather than generalized as this is simpler to implement and monitor. Healthy examples might be: Fresh fruit and vegetables, wholemeal rice and pasta, plain unadulterated fish, meat and eggs, but no ultra-processed foods. Of course, not everyone would be persuaded to change their food habits and join the scheme but even so, it would be the first step in a dual approach to tackling both food poverty and health.
* I worked as a multimedia computer programmer in Oxford and now spend my retirement as a painter and illustrator (see ludwikart.com).
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2 Comments
It’s an interesting suggestion. We definitely need to do something to focus our collective minds on the benefits of healthier eating not just to individuals, but to our public services and society as a whole, whilst ensuring the harms of Ultra Processed Foods and the power of the industrial ‘food’ industry don’t go unchecked.
I like the idea of a scheme that will reduce the costs of better foods, especially if focused on those who most need the help. I’d like to see something that doesn’t artificially benefit the super-markets, who are complicit in encouraging us to rely on the foods with the biggest profit margins, which are typically those with the lowest nutritional value.
I’d also foresee the potential for a secondary market whereby those who are entitled to a discount buy on behalf of those who are not. However, that may not be a big deal if it means more people are encouraged to eat more healthily, and not that different to getting your parents to buy your stuff from B&Q when it’s pensioner discount day.
There would be arguments on what counted as sufficiently healthy to qualify, and the industrial food lobby will definitely push back, but so did the tobacco industry and they should be treated with the same scepticism.
Nice idea and certainly we need stronger local public health services that steer people towards a more healthy lifestyle, which means exercise and sufficient sleep and learning how to cope with problems so that mental ill-health is reduced. So this could only be at best one small part but there are tricky problems within it. Thus, who defines low-income and therefore who qualifies for the discount card ?