\u2018Puerto Rico may fine parents of obese children\u2019<\/em> described the proposal:<\/p>\nThe bill, introduced by Sen. Gilberto Rodr\u00c3\u00adguez, would make the Department of Education in Puerto Rico responsible for identifying children who are at risk for obesity, but not due to preexisting medical conditions, according to El Pa\u00c3\u00ads. Health officials would indicate obesity health risks to parents. If the child\u2019s condition does not \u201cprogress\u201d within six months, parents could be fined $500. If after another six months the child\u2019s condition does not improve, the fine could be $800. The case could be brought to social workers at the Puerto Rico Department of Family Affairs<\/em><\/p>\nThe idea is not new. Jonathan Gruber, the architect of Obamacare declared in 2010 that taxing \u201cfat people\u201d<\/em> by body weight was an option to fight obesity in an article titled \u2018Taxing Sin to Modify Behavior and Raise Revenue\u2019<\/em> for the National Institute for Health Care Management<\/em> (NIHCM) and said:<\/p>\nUltimately, what may be needed to address the obesity problem are direct taxes on body weight. While it is hard to conceive of this approach being a common public policy tool in the near term, such taxation may be happening indirectly through health insurance surcharges. Currently, employers may charge up to 20 percent higher health insurance premiums for employees who fail to meet certain health-related standards, such as attaining a healthy BMI. The new health reform legislation increases this differential to 30 percent, with the possibility of rising to 50 percent. Results of programs that use differential premiums to impose direct financial penalties for obesity will bear watching in the future<\/em><\/p>\nMany on the Island-nation do not agree with the new bill including the president of Puerto Rico\u2019s chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Ricardo Fontanet who declared \u201cIt will bring complications because there are obese children due to medical complications and genetic factors\u201d<\/em> the report said. I agree to a certain extent, however, Puerto Rico\u2019s obesity problem especially for children has one major problem that Mr. Fontanet did not mention and that is a direct correlation with obesity and U.S. fast food corporations. Many Fast food corporations has invaded Puerto Rico including McDonalds, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wendy\u2019s, and several others have led to the domination of the local food markets. In a 2005 report by Caribbean Business stated how fast food corporations began in Puerto Rico:<\/p>\nThe fast-food industry has come a long way since such chains as Tastee Freeze and Big Boy began appearing on the island in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Since then, the number of chains has multiplied aggressively, demonstrating Puerto Rico is an attractive market. As a whole, 2,000 fast-food restaurants in Puerto Rico are estimated to rake in $1 billion to $1.3 billion a year in revenue, according to industry sources. Studies also have shown 77% of locals visit fast-food restaurants often<\/em><\/p>\nIf there are 2,000 fast food restaurants with 77% of locals as consumers, then do expect obesity levels to increase. One film that fast food enthusiasts\u2019 should watch is Morgan Spurlock\u2019s \u2018Super Size Me\u2019<\/em>, a 2004 documentary film that tracked Spurlock\u2019s 30-day experimentation by eating three meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) a day from McDonalds. What was the result according to Spurlock\u2019s film?<\/p>\nRead more<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Timothy Alexander Guzman (Silent Crow News) \u2014 It seems that the Puerto Rico government is scrambling to find ways to collect tax revenues to satisfy its debt obligations. Why? Well there is a new controversial \u201cFat\u201d tax bill filed by Puerto Rican Senator Gilberto Rodriguez to combat child obesity. The plan calls for school teachers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1247,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-148622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148622\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}