Fighting Child Obesity: States Lead The Way
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The March issue of Health Affairs is a thematic issue focusing on the child obesity epidemic and supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Two days after the issue and an accompanying series of policy briefs was released at a March 2 Washington DC briefing, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held the first of a planned series of hearings on child obesity. Today, the Health Affairs Blog offers posts from Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), the ranking member of the HELP Committee (below) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), the chairman of the panel.
Our nation faces an epidemic of childhood obesity that threatens the lives, health, and financial independence of our children and grandchildren. As a result of growing rates of obesity, millions of American children and adolescents will develop heart disease, diabetes, and a host of other serious medical conditions. Obesity-related health care costs, particularly for programs like Medicare and Medicaid, will continue to increase—well beyond their already unsustainable levels.
To save lives, improve health, and prevent rising costs, we must work together—federal, state, and local governments; schools and teachers; parents and children—to fight childhood obesity. The problem we face is staggering. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the rate of childhood obesity has tripled in the last thirty years. Today, 20 percent of children struggle with obesity, and in thirty states, childhood obesity rates have topped 30 percent. For most of these children, their struggles with obesity will follow them into adulthood, as 80 percent of severely overweight teenagers remain obese into their late twenties and beyond.
This obesity epidemic has a direct and immediate impact on national health care spending. According to a recent article in Health Affairs, the medical bills of an obese individual are 42 percent more than someone of normal weight. A 2003 study cited by the CDC shows that 9.1 percent of total U.S. medical expenditures went toward obesity related care.
While the financial impact of the obesity epidemic is tremendous, the human cost is even greater. The CDC reports that obese youth are at a higher risk for cardiovascular diseases, including high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Obese children also carry a greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem. Obese youth will be more at risk as adults for heart disease, type II diabetes, stroke, cancer, and osteoarthritis.
Innovative State Approaches To Promoting Healthier Choices
Working with the children in our communities, and educating them about the importance of being physically active and choosing to eat healthy food, is critical to combating childhood obesity. Although the federal government does not have a great track record of implementing programs that successfully help people make healthier choices, many of our states are taking the right steps.
In Wyoming, for example, we have the “Commit to Your Health Campaign,” which hosts walks in the community with third graders to increase awareness about childhood obesity. Our state also conducts media campaigns that focus on physical fitness, healthy lifestyles, and sound nutritional practices.
Other states, as well as employers, educators, and community leaders, are also engaged in successful efforts to help children make the right choices to lead healthier lives. The First Lady has announced the Let’s Move initiative to stop childhood obesity through a public campaign focused on nutrition, physical activity, healthy options in schools, and helping families making good lifestyle choices. I applaud the First Lady’s efforts to raise obesity awareness, encourage children to adopt healthier behaviors, and provide families with the tools they need to make better choices.
I hope that we can learn from and emulate these efforts as we work on a legislative companion to the First Lady’s childhood obesity initiative. By building on their successes and finding new ways to encourage and incentivize solutions that will promote greater personal responsibility, we can help all Americans lead healthier, more fulfilling lives.
by Sen. Mike Enzi
healthaffairs.org
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