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Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Fat government, fat people
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s not just government that’s bloated. We are too, according to an organization that tracks obesity state-by-state.
Eventually good fiscal conservatives will get a pork-loving Congress to diet. The first step is exposing earmarks, those pet projects slipped into appropriations bills by individual senators and representatives. One step in that direction would be to give President Bush the line-item veto, or at least the weaker version of it that passed the House, 247-172.
But we may be the bigger problem. America, in one generation, has gone from having a hunger problem to having an obesity problem. Eight of the 10 states with the highest obesity rates are in the South. In Mississippi, 29.5 percent of adults are considered overweight, highest in the country.
The question here is what, if anything, government should do about it? Among the recommendations are that government fund more sidewalks, change land-use laws so that people are tempted to walk or ride bicycles to the store or to work, mandate screenings for Medicaid beneficiaries, or put programs in schools to address the problem of overweight children. Employers, according to the organization gathering the data, should offer nutrition counseling and subsidize health club memberships.
It does make sense for government to manage wellness in Medicaid, PeachCare and other taxpayer-subsidized programs. That would include entering into long-term contracts with health maintenance organizations so that they have incentive to help people lose weight, thus reducing the cost to taxpayers of health problems associated with obesity, like diabetes and hypertension. The zoning, sidewalks, school curriculm and food-cop approaches have no appeal to me, nor do mandates on employers. If the private sector determines that its medical costs are reduced by subsidizing fitness center memeberships, it should. But that’s entirely between employers and their employees. We’re fat. What, if anything, should government do?
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