(CNSNews.com) - A coalition of businesses, non-profits, and government agencies is urging the House of Representatives to include an alcohol tax hike in its health care bill.

Partnership for Prevention says the money generated by a higher federal excise tax on alcoholic beverages should go into a special fund that would pay for prevention and wellness programs.

"Higher alcohol excise taxes are an important tool in reducing the public health toll of alcohol abuse, while also providing a viable and appropriate source of funding to finance reform of our nation's health system," Partnership for Prevention President Robert J. Gould said in a letter to Reps. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), and George Miller (D-Calif.).

Rangel, Waxman and Miller are chairmen, respectively, of the House Ways and Means Committee, the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Education and Labor Committee, which have teamed up on a health care reform bill.

In his letter, Gould noted that federal alcohol excise taxes were last raised in 1991 and have not kept pace with inflation.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that a 20 percent tax hike on distilled spirits and equalizing the tax rates on other alcoholic beverages would provide $60 billion in new revenue over a decade.

"It is important to note that any tax increase on alcoholic beverages will be paid by a small percentage of the population," he said. "Nearly three-quarters of American adults abstain from alcohol or drink once a week or less."

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, an industry trade group, says this is the wrong time to raise taxes on alcohol.

“In this economy, the hospitality industry can’t afford to lose any more jobs to punitive tax increases,” the group says on its Web site.

The council says currently, 59 percent of the money paid for a “typical bottle of spirits” goes toward taxes and fees.

“Policymakers need to understand that a tax on alcohol is a tax on the entire hospitality industry – negatively impacting restaurants, hotels, bars, nightclubs and liquor stores, and the thousands of men and women they employ,” the Council says on its Web site.

See earlier story:
Tobacco Use—Not Promiscuity or Drug Abuse—Will Be Only Vice Legally Punishable by Higher Insurance Premiums Under Senate Health Care Bill (15 July 2009)