Should we pay people to lose weight?
In a very controversial move Winton Rossiter, the founder of Weight Wins, has suggested that the UK government should look at his scheme which pays people to lose weight offering the potential to save billions of pounds of NHS spending in the future. The scheme, which was sponsored by the NHS Eastern and Costal Kent, saw 402 people enroll with those being "paid" to lose weight having lost nearly twice as much as those who were not paid.
While the idea of paying people to effectively do something they should do under their own steam will go against the grain of many people in the UK there may be method behind the madness. The ability, or at least the option, to reduce the significant increase in obesity in the UK in the short to medium term will ultimately save the NHS billions of pounds in the future. However, this comes at a time when the UK government is set to push through billion pounds savings in the NHS and paying out money for people to lose weight may seem like an inappropriate use of taxpayer's funds.
In many ways this particular scheme is an investment in the future but those who are unaffected by obesity and the resulting medical conditions may not be very amenable towards the scheme.
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