People hate the idea of being forced to make healthier choices by the nanny state. The trick is not to tell them. Just ask Coca-Cola. In order to dodge the new tax on sugary drinks – much to the fury of libertarians – the soft drinks giant has recently been reformulating its products. It began by quietly reducing the calories in Sprite. Consumers didn’t seem to mind, so the company then secretly cut the sugar in Fanta by a third, which again had no impact on sales. “People literally didn’t notice.” So much for claims that the sugar levy would ruin much-loved brands.

This is how it always goes with health and safety interventions, from the introduction of compul­sory safety belts to the smoking ban. “Outrage turns to grudging acceptance, before mellowing into surprise that things were ever any different.” You have to get past that “initial wall of resistance, constructed of corporate inertia and knee-jerk irritation among consumers at being told what to do”. You often need laws to overcome the former, but, as Coca-Cola shows, you can get round the latter through more sly means. Call it “health by stealth”. (Gaby Hinsliff, The Guardian)

A bit of a jump, but that is what should have been done with the health insurance mandate, the American tax associated with Obamacare, and which the current government have ceased to enforce.  The right-wingers, libertarians and tax-haters loath the mandate that makes healthy young people contribute to the overall health of the nation. You and I know what this about – you pay while you are healthy because one day you trust that some healthy person will be paying so that you yourself can get healthcare at an affordable cost,  if you are ill.  It’s called “insurance”.

Given time and a bit of education (hah!) the public would have become used to the mandate and would have blessed it when a family member had to have a heart by-pass. The lack of community commitment and involvement is  astonishing – and un-Epicurean.    Selfishness rules.