DPH seeks to revive tax for sugar-sweetened drinks

Non-Communicable Disease Alliance members are now helping consolidate a previous bill from the 18th Legislature that seeks to impose a tax for sugar-sweetened beverages.

The bill, tabled in the previous Legislature, discourages the purchase of sugar-sweetened drinks, which is being blamed for one of the most common NCDs on-island—diabetes.

“This bill is a collaboration between Rep. Felicidad Ogumoro (R-Saipan) and the NCD Alliance, a community-based organization. Just before the typhoon, the alliance was discussing how best to educate the public on the dangers of sugar-sweetened beverages and the benefits of reduced consumption but we haven’t come to a final plan for education,” said Kaitlyn Neises, Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. DPH’s NCD Bureau public health planner.

Ogumoro introduced the bill to tax sugar-sweetened beverages (House Bill 18-34) and called it the Healthcare Impact Tax bill, which sought to stem people’s penchant for buying unhealthy foods.

HB 18-34 sought to impose a 150 percent ad valorem tax on tobacco; 70 percent ad valorem tax on alcohol; and 70 percent tax on sugar-sweetened beverages.

However, this new bill that DPH, NCD alliance members, and Ogumoro are proposing is a different bill that would help discourage people from purchasing sugar-sweetened beverages.

According to CHCC’s data for 2013 alone, the prevalence rate of diabetes has risen to 81.83 per 1,000 persons alone. Although CHCC has made additional investments by recruiting more internal medicine physicians and reopening its satellite clinics, NCDs is still a problem in the Commonwealth.

In an earlier interview, CHCC chief executive officer Esther Muña said that H.B. 18-34 received many criticisms because of the assumed economic impact on individuals and businesses.

“The struggle that CHCC has in addressing healthcare in the CNMI is a result of the small investment the CNMI makes in health care,” Muña said. “CHCC is committed to building a healthy CNMI and educating CNMI residents about the importance of health screenings and promoting prevention and wellness initiatives.”

NCD alliance members met in July of this year to discuss the sugar-sweetened beverage tax.

“Unfortunately, Soudelor happened and I don’t know where Ogumoro is at in terms of finalizing the bill for introduction in the house,” Neises said.