Inside ICE Detention: Many Facilities Operated Without Qualified Health Staff
A New Study of a Sample of Facilities Found Half Without Any Behavioral Health Staff
In Their Own Words
A Call to Keep Philadelphia’s Soda Tax
For Seven Years, Revenue Has Supported Education, Community Projects, and Better Health Outcomes
Print:
The following excerpt is from an op-ed originally published in the Philadelphia Inquirer on October 27, 2025.
Last week, City Council held a hearing on the future of the city’s sweetened beverage tax, with some members suggesting it should be reversed. As health policy researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, we have studied this tax since its 2017 debut. The data on its effects are clear: The tax improves residents’ health while generating game-changing revenue for schools, libraries, and construction jobs.
Repealing the tax would be a grave mistake that would harm Philadelphia’s children and put a wrecking ball to a host of rebuilding efforts that have helped transform city neighborhoods.
Philadelphia is the largest city in the nation with a sweetened beverage tax. We place a 1.5 cents-per-ounce tax on sweetened drinks, leading to an average price increase of about 30%. We’ve had the levy for more than seven years, and it has funded the city’s largest public works program in recent history.
Councilmember Jim Harrity has argued that Philadelphia should consider repealing the tax based on claims not well supported by evidence. Harrity asserts that the tax hurts businesses because Philadelphians are buying less soda and other sugary drinks and shopping for groceries in nearby counties without a tax, causing soda companies to lay off workers and supermarkets to close.
Read the full op-ed here.
Author
Christina Roberto, PhD
Mitchell J. Blutt and Margo Krody Blutt Presidential Professor, Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine
Associate Director, Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics
More from LDI
New National Study Finds Doctors Paid Less for Treating Black and Hispanic Patients
Physicians Were Paid About 10% Less for Visits Involving Black and Hispanic Patients, With Pediatric Gaps Reaching 15%, According to a First-of-Its-Kind LDI Analysis
Hospital Mergers Don’t Make Care Better—They Just Make It Pricier, LDI Fellows Say
A New Review Finds Hospital Mergers Raise Prices Without Improving Care, and Urges Regulators to Stop Accepting Quality Claims to Justify Consolidations
Medicare Payment Model Shortchanges Rural Patients, Study Finds
CMS’s Main Risk Adjustment Method Underestimates Rural Patients’ Health Risks, LDI Fellows Show, Potentially Reducing Access to Care in the Heartland
AI Pushes Medical Schools Into New Era, but Are They Prepared?
Experts at Penn LDI Panel Call for Rapid Training of Students and Faculty
Acupuncture Could Fix America’s Chronic Pain Crisis–So Why Can’t Patients Get It?
A Proven, Low-Risk Treatment Is Backed by Major Studies and Patient Demand, Yet Medicare and Insurers Still Make It Hard To Use