If the profits are healthy...

摘要

The UK Faculty of Public Health will shortly publish a manifesto recommending a range of policies designed to protect and improve public health. These include a sugar tax, a minimum price for a unit of alcohol, a ban on junk food advertising to children and a living wage. All are evidence-based. All could be torpedoed by TTIP. TTIP rides roughshod over national law, undermining the entitlement of states to legislate to protect their citizens. We believe it will damage public health and make prospects for future laws protecting and promoting health less likely. A lot has been written about implications for publicly funded health services, like the UK's NHS. The fear is that TTIP will open them up to private commercial interests which will cherry-pick the profitable areas of patient care, leaving the most vulnerable patients and least attractive services at risk.