> a tax on unhealthy food to help fund Medicare and Medicaid.

Fully 13% of the population lives in an area with restricted access to grocery stores[1]. Couple that with car-centric anti-pedestrian development[2] and you have a definitively societal problem. Addressing that with taxes on the individual will not address these causes, only shift the burden further onto the poor.

1. https://www.aecf.org/blog/communities-with-limited-food-acce...

2. https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2023/11/09/i...

Then fund the stores through the Medicaid funds generated.

Gotta start somewhere.