Predicted impact of different alcohol taxation and pricing policies on health inequalities
Alcohol-content-based taxation or minimum unit pricing (MUP) are both predicted to reduce health inequalities more than taxation based on product value (ad valorem taxes) or alcohol tax increases under the current system (excise duty plus value added tax) in England, according to research published this week in PLOS Medicine.
Petra Meier of the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom, and colleagues, used the Sheffield Alcohol Policy Model (SAPM), to estimate how price changes would affect individual-level alcohol consumption and how consumption changes affect the illnesses and deaths associated with 43 alcohol-attributable conditions.