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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – The budget deficit is growing and the Obama Administration is trying to figure out how to get out of the fiscal mess. All of the President’s advisors agree that controlling healthcare costs is the way to solvency but none of the current proposals provide an effective way to contain costs. There is only one viable solution: ask Americans to lose weight and give them the tools to keep it off.
The waistlines of Americans young and old are expanding and the costs of related chronic diseases—like Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease and stroke—are exploding alongside the obesity epidemic. Our nation’s obesity problem is costing the country more than $117 billion per year in direct medical costs and indirect costs related to reduced worker productivity and absenteeism. And experts agree that rising rates of obesity-related chronic diseases are driving higher annual medical expenditures.
In order to realize savings, I propose a three-tiered plan that addresses the root cause of the problem while containing healthcare costs and averting national insolvency. First, for the sake of the country, we must ask overweight Americans to make a shared sacrifice by losing weight—perhaps 13% of their body mass to match the 13% of the GDP represented by our $1.8 trillion fiscal deficit.
Second, we must create a primary prevention system on top of an expanded healthcare system that supports Americans in their effort to lose weight. This “wellness insurance” system would give American workers and their families’ access to health clubs, nutrition education, weight loss programs and other primary prevention services that would help them achieve and maintain healthy lifestyles.
Furthermore, the adoption of a wellness tax credit tied to wellness insurance utilization rates and health outcomes would create an economic incentive for Americans of all backgrounds to eat healthier and be more physically active. Under this plan, individuals and families who meet specified yearly utilization requirements and can demonstrate progress towards health goals would be eligible to receive a wellness tax credit that could offset their income tax liability. This tax credit would be refundable so that individuals and families without tax liability could also be rewarded for healthy behaviors.
For decades, corporations have been encouraging their employees to participate in wellness programs as a way to reduce costs and enhance their bottom lines. The efficacy of this approach has been proven in the private sector, now we must give a broad base of American workers access to wellness services. This could be achieved by establishing wellness insurance as a Social Security insurance benefit. It could be paid for with a modest increase in the Social Security payroll tax combined with additional certification fees levied on wellness providers who would stand to receive millions of dollars in new revenue as a result of this program.
The final part of the plan involves adopting and implementing community and school-based policies that support healthy eating and active living. Most Americans live in what researchers call “obesogenic environments” that encourage sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy eating. For example, most U.S. cities are car-dependent and do not have an infrastructure to support walking, biking or taking public transportation to destinations. To make matters worse, some neighborhoods in these communities lack access to retail outlets that sell healthy foods.
Similarly, too many schools have cut physical education and recess from the school day and, although they are improving, many continue to offer foods of low nutritional value in cafeterias and in vending machines. Whether it’s installing bike lanes and opening supermarkets in communities or increasing physical education requirements and establishing nutrition standards in schools, we need to pass policies at the federal, state and local levels that can support children and their families in their effort to live healthier.
Fortunately, funds in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act can be used to support state and local investments in infrastructure and equipment that can help create healthier environments. The reauthorization of the federal transportation and Child Nutrition and WIC reauthorization bills offer additional opportunities to secure funds for these purposes.
Research suggests that childhood obesity rates are likely to contribute to higher healthcare costs in the future—at great expense to taxpayers—if nothing is done to reverse the trend. Asking Americans to lose weight, pay a little more for wellness benefits and invest in healthier schools and communities shouldn’t be too much to ask to solve our nation’s fiscal crisis.
Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings is President and CEO of Global Policy Solutions, a social change strategy firm based in Washington, DC. She has formerly served as Chief of Staff to Congressman Charles Rangel and as a professional staffer on the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee.
www.globalpolicysolutions.com
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