Why the Public Option Will Vastly Improve Public Health
10/19/09
The public health insurance option will greatly increase political support of aggressive preventive-health policies as taxpayers realize they’ve become the insurer of last resort.
Obesity-prevention policies such as “fat taxes” or outright bans on junk food, impossible to roll out nationally in the current political environment, will begin to take center stage in Congress as taxpayers realize that everyone is paying the price for obesity.
Dr. Thomas Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says the obesity epidemic is “the only thing in health in this country that is getting worse, and it’s getting worse fast”. In this speech (given when he was still the New York Health Commissioner) he equates the obesity fight with the campaign against cigarette smoking and urges similar actions be taken, such as:
- Reducing the amount of junk food advertising aimed at children;
- Limiting children’s “hazardous exposure” to junk food products in schools and other public places;
- Increasing the prominent display of the calorie content of restaurant meals to help consumers make better nutrition decisions when eating out;
- Increasing clinical interventions for people suffering from obesity.