Incentives: Get paid to lose weight
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Lots of good discussion points on the Sky news item today from NICE (The National Institute for health and Clinical Evidence), the government’s public health body. After trials over the last few years, it is looking at the evidence around paying people to kick unhealthy lifestyles.
The scheme would involve receiving up to £200 from the NHS in return for losing weight.
Discussion points:
- The main reaction from the public is that its a waste of taxpayers’’ money. Clearly this is forgetting the point that currently the NHS spends over £12 bn a year (of taxpayers’ money!) on treating obesity. So the idea of a net cost-benefit analysis is necessary.
- This is a different take on the “negative externalities, make the third party pay” premium fat tax idea, analysed by the Institute of Fiscal Studies here.
- The short term vs long term consequences of the policy - is this incentive structure a long term solution?
- A la Thaler’s Nudge, does this incentive structure work any better than “lose weight, you will live longer”... and if it does, what does that say about rational homo economicus, that we respond to money incentives more than self-preservation incentives?
- How does this policy work for people who may want to lose weight but are beyond clinically obese?
- Moral hazard problem?
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