Kids' Meal Toys May Be Banned to Save on Government Health Care Costs

Children in Santa Clara County in California could have one less reason to be happy very soon: lawmakers are proposing a law that would not allow toys to be included in kids' meals that have more than 485 calories, excessive amounts of sugar or fat, or more than 600 mg of salt. This would mean that kids purchasing a Happy Meal at McDonald's would not be allowed to get a free toy. Although parents say that this law takes away their decision making ability, one of the reasons behind the push to force children into healthier diets could be to save money on health care. As Obamacare goes into effect and the government controls more of Americans' health care, we may end up seeing more of this kind of legislation.

Parents Should Decide What to Feed Their Children

As a parent of two children, I know that kids like to go to places like McDonald's in order to get the kids' meal. I also know that parents do have the capacity to choose what their kids eat, to some degree. Children do not usually have their own money, nor do they have the capacity to drive to the nearest fast food restaurant to buy their own Happy Meals. If parents are taking their children to eat at fast food restaurants so often that their children are obese, then these parents need to cut back on the fast food. In many cases, parents run through the drive-through because they don't feel that they have much time to feed their children more nutritious food. They might have after-school activities to run their children to, and the last thing on their minds might be cooking when they get home. Whether they are taking children to McDonald's because they are busy, or because the children are clamoring to go get a toy, they still should have the right to choose what to feed their children.

Health Care Money a Motivation behind the Legislation

In the Los Angeles Times article discussing the introduction of this proposed law, Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager said something that was quite telling: "We're responsible for paying for health care in the whole county .... We pay close to $2 billion annually on health care, and the costs have done nothing but rise." Evidently, there is a link between his interest in helping kids become healthier, and the money that his county spends on health care. Perhaps if the county wasn't paying for the health care of obese children, he would have a more laissez faire attitude. After all, the child's obesity is not just affecting the child and the parents; it is affecting all the taxpayers in the county.

Unfortunately, as government takes over the health care system, the government is likely to become more interested in our health. When discussing the now-passed legislation, Nancy Pelosi tellingly stated that "it's about diet, not diabetes." Government really wouldn't care if you had diabetes or not, if they didn't have to pay for caring for diabetes. Perhaps we can expect more Happy Meal legislation like this proposed law in the years to come.

A Better Solution than Regulating Happy Meals

Most Americans do not want to be told what to do. They don't want to be told that their children cannot have a toy with their Happy Meal (incidentally, you can purchase a Happy Meal toy without the meal, it is not known whether the law would prohibit McDonald's from selling the toy by itself). Most parents know their children better than the government does. My children are fairly active; they end up coming home after eating a kids meal hungry again; fortunately, we try to keep healthy food like apples and bananas in the house for them to eat (they are far from obese).

Rather than tell parents what they can and cannot feed their children, perhaps the government should spend more time educating parents on alternative food choices. Many grocery stores have deli sections where you can buy an already-prepared meal, throw it in the microwave, and in less than 10 minutes, a meal is ready. Perhaps the government can encourage these kinds of alternatives to fast food. This won't help a parent who is between activities and can't even stop at home, but perhaps that could cut back on some eating out.

Unfortunately, the government is currently in the mindset that it knows better than the people, and it can make the people behave by passing legislation that takes away our freedoms in order to get us to behave the way that it thinks that we should. As taxpayers start paying for a larger share of health care costs, we can expect more attempts by the government to legislate our health.

Sources:

Bernstein, Sharon. "Happy Meal Toys Could be Banned in Santa Clara County." Los Angeles Times, 27 April 2010.

Suderman, Peter. "Nancy Pelosi on Health Care: 'We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.'" Reason.com, 9 March 2010.