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Monday, June 22, 2009
Bingaman proposal aims to curb obesity
By Amanda Schoenberg
Journal Staff Writer
A proposal to combat obesity may end up in a sweeping health-care reform bill if U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., gets his way.
Bingaman hopes to add provisions of a bill he introduced in May, the Obesity Prevention, Treatment and Research Act, to health care legislation expected to reach the Senate floor by the end of July.
Bingaman has introduced several unsuccessful bills to prevent obesity, which affects more than one-third of adults in the United States.
"There are lots of bills that get introduced here in Congress," he said in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C. "Sometimes you have to wait for the wave to come by to ride the wave in."
Bingaman's proposal would form a national council on obesity, create a $50 million grant program for agencies and states working on obesity prevention in hard-hit communities and expand funding for fresh fruits and vegetables in schools. It would also add nutritional counseling and preventive care for Medicare, Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program members.
Nutritional help is needed to prevent chronic health problems like obesity, Bingaman says.
"Many people have commented on the fact that we don't have a health care system, we have a sick care system in place," he said. "If you're not sick, you're on your own — nutritional counseling falls off the table."
Obesity is linked to diabetes, heart disease, stroke, respiratory problems and liver disease. A 2003 study found that treating overweight and obese people costs about $92.6 million a year, or about 9 percent of annual medical costs.
In New Mexico, 24 percent of the population is obese, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. According to Dr. Patty Morris, senior health adviser in the New Mexico Department of Health, obesity rates have nearly quadrupled in New Mexico over the past 30 years. She welcomes the idea of preventive measures in the health-care bill.
"I think it's a terrific idea," she says. "We know that unhealthy eating and sedentary lifestyles lead to obesity, and those really are the two lifestyle factors that influence chronic disease. The problem is huge, and it's getting bigger. It's certainly a policy whose time has come."
Morris, who chairs the New Mexico Interagency Council for the Prevention of Obesity, testified about the state's obesity problem in December in Santa Fe before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
Obesity is on the rise with younger children, Morris says. In 2000, 9 percent of children ages 2 to 5 in the program for low-income Women, Infants and Children were obese or overweight. In 2007, almost 13 percent were obese or overweight.
Obesity trends hit some harder than others. In 2007, 32 percent of American Indian and 26 percent of Hispanic high school students were overweight or obese, compared with 18.6 percent of white non-Hispanic students in New Mexico.
Families living in poverty also have disproportionately high rates of obesity. People with limited incomes may purchase cheaper, higher-calorie foods that make them feel full, Morris says.
While warning bells of an obesity epidemic have sounded since the 1970s, some critics say more needs to be done. In a 2005 report, the U.S. Institute of Medicine, a nonprofit science advisory group, warned that efforts to prevent obesity remained fragmented and underfunded.
"Everybody knows obesity is a problem," Morris says. "Now we need the political will. The question is what are we going to do about it from a programmatic point of view."
A New Mexico plan to promote healthier weight from 2006-2015 emphasizes increasing physical activity and fruit and vegetable intake, reducing computer and television time, curbing sugary drinks, increasing information on portion control and increasing breast-feeding rates. The plan focuses on low-income families earning less than $10,000 a year, Hispanic and Native American populations and families with children.
A pilot program in Las Cruces aims to curb obesity with programs including healthy cooking classes for parents, safe routes for children to bike or walk to school and obesity training for health care providers, Morris says.
While critics blame parents for their children's expanding girth, Morris says curbing obesity requires a broader response.
"We so quickly want to blame it all on the individual or on the environment, and it really is both," Morris says.
Morris compares obesity prevention efforts to anti-smoking campaigns.
"It took us a generation to get us into this place," she says. "It may take us another generation to get out."
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