Mexican-American women and 32% of non-Hispanic white women.
“The average taxpayer spends $175 per year to finance obesity-related medical expenditures among Medicare and Medicaid recipients,” said Eric Finkelstein, a health economist with RTI International”s Public Health Economics Program, noting that many companies do not want to cover obesity prevention in health care. “$140,000 more per year is spent on obesity-attributable medical expenditures and absenteeism.”
“This is one issue that we can get bipartisan support on,” said Secretary Thompson adding that this is a policy issue that politicians won”t be able to reach a decision on cost effectiveness.
“If I were a Congressman I would suggest that the president and the entire congressional team work to remove obesity as a disease,” says Clegg, who fought to get bariatric surgery covered by medical insurance in New Hampshire. “I heard today that the choice for food in some urban areas isn”t as good as it is in some suburban areas. Maybe we need to take a look at how to fix that.”
Fisher offers that regulating food labels and encouraging obesity prevention with insurance discounts and tax deductions are ways the government could help to deal with obesity. Along with Clegg, Fisher also argues that the federal government should prevent insurance companies from discriminating against the overweight and people with diabetes. “We can change the way companies advertise foods and we”ve done that with [foods targeting children] and we can change the way food products are displayed in stores,” Fisher says.
Policy aside, she contends that most people, particularly African Americans, do not make wise eating choices. “Many of us are addicted to fast food. We need a change in our dietary habits. Obesity, heart disease, and diabetes those are lifestyle issues. The government can”t change people”s lifestyle issues for them.”