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MSN Money
Obamacare Just
Killed the Joy of Eating a Vending Machine Snack
Diana Furchtgott-Roth
Packet foods on sale in an outdoor vending machine. © Carl Pendle/Getty
Images Packet foods on sale in an outdoor vending machine.
It’s bad enough that the Affordable Care Act is raising premiums and
deductibles—and perhaps lowering your tax refund. In addition, the ACA
has given the Food and Drug Administration the power to go after your
favorite vending machine. By the end of next year, according to a
new FDA rule, most snack machines must have calorie counts prominently
displayed, or risk removal.
Any sort of vending machines, from mixed nut machines to gumball
machines, are subject to this new rule, if the operator owns twenty or
more machines. The calorie declarations must be clear, conspicuous, and
placed prominently on a sign in, on, or adjacent to the vending machine.
This rule would not only cost the FDA millions of dollars to implement,
money that could be better spent on speeding new drugs to market or
returned to the taxpayer, but it could drive many small vending machine
companies out of business with little real benefit to consumers.
While the FDA claims that this new regulation will lower health care
costs, it also concedes that it has “not estimated the actual benefits
associated with proposed requirements.” In other words, no study was
conducted or true consumer behavior tested...
Read the rest of the article at MSN Money
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