A national tax on sugar-sweetened beverages of 1 cent per ounce would raise $14.9 billion in the first year and could be used to help support nutrition and healthcare programs, according to a group of health experts.

In an article in the September 17th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, a group of prominent researchers write: “The science base linking the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages to the risk of chronic diseases is clear. Escalating health care costs and the rising burden of diseases related to poor diet create an urgent need for solutions, thus justifying government’s right to recoup costs.”

The authors likened the proposal to state and federal taxes on tobacco products. “As with any public health intervention, the precise effect of a tax cannot be known until it is implemented and studied, but research to date suggests that a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages would have strong positive effects on reducing consumption,” the article adds. “In addition, the tax has the potential to generate substantial revenue to prevent obesity and address other external costs resulting from the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, as well as to fund other health-related programs.”

While the group proposed an excise tax of 1 cent per ounce for beverages that have any added caloric sweetener, they note an alternative would be to tax beverages that exceed a threshold of grams of added caloric sweetener or of kilocalories per ounce.

Another option would be a tax assessed per gram of added sugar, but they advise such an approach would be difficult to administer. “The advantage of taxing beverages that have any added sugar is that this kind of tax is simpler to administer and it may promote the consumption of no-calorie beverages, most notably water; however, a threshold approach would also promote calorie reductions and would encourage manufacturers to reformulate products.”

A consumer who drinks a conventional soft drink (20 oz. [591 ml]) every day and switches to a beverage below this threshold would consume approximately 174 fewer calories each day, the authors estimate.

Medical costs for overweight and obesity alone are estimated to be $147 billion—or 9.1% of U.S. healthcare expenditures—with half of these costs paid for publicly through the Medicare and Medicaid programs.