Jan

11

Guest Column: The 2010 Agenda: Public Health - Texas Tribune(Childhood Obesity News)

Filed Under Childhood Obesity News | Leave a Comment

The second is that the rates of childhood and adult obesity here continue to rise; with the shifting racial and ethnic profile of the state, they rise faster here than in many other parts of the country. The demand for care and the cost of care for seniors will compete with the demand and cost of care for the increasing number of Texans who are obese and, as a result, have also been or will be diagnosed with heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or some forms of arthritis. There is no doubt that insuring more Texans will be an expensive proposition; however, for a state that takes pride in its Christian values and sensibilities, as it well should, universal insurance is a moral imperative in the spirit of The Good Samaritan. Furthermore, the cost associated with increasing the number of insured Texans could be lessened by banning indoor smoking in all public places and assuring that all schools have coordinated health programs that improve the quality of food in the schools, make physical education a daily expectation, and incorporate healthy lifestyle lessons into the daily curriculum. Fewer myocardial infarctions are good for families (there’s less grief and anguish), good for employers (less sick leave, disability, and medical care costs), and good for medical care systems (less of a cost to the public system and less demand for care in sometimes overcrowded emergency room settings). The cost of universal coordinated school health programs is on the order of $10 to $15 per child per year, in contrast to a cost of approximately $1,000 per year for medical care. Read Childhood Obesity

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