“The regulations, which originated in Obamacare, total 319 pages and will cost industry $1.7 billion to comply. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published the final rules last week just before the Thanksgiving holiday, arguing the rules are “an important step for public health.” Dan Goldbeck, a research analyst for the American Action Forum, documented that the rules are more costly than the administration originally anticipated, after expanding the number of restaurants and vending machine owners who must comply. “These rules have always been a curious addition to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as there’s no clear linkage to the law’s primary goal of health insurance reform,” Goldbeck wrote. “Originally proposed in April 2011, the final versions have taken more than three years to find their way to the Federal Register.” The final rules increased costs by $542 million from the proposed rules, totaling $531.1 million for vending machines, and $1.2 billion for restaurants to change their menus. In addition, paperwork associated with the vending machine rule will take 1,507,788.5 hours to complete. Costs are likely to be passed onto consumers, but the FDA believes Americans will be happy to pay more for additional nutrition information. “We fully expect that some proportion of the costs imposed by the regulation will be passed on to consumers, who are generally willing to accept some degree of price increase in exchange for an increase in the nutrient content information of standard menu items,” the FDA said in their Regulatory Impact Analysis on the menu rule in November.”
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 12:43:23 +0000
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