Get it Right, Get it Tight: Government Intervention in Escalating Obesity Rates

In prevalence to obesity, Pennsylvania currently ranks 36th among states with 32.6 percentage of the population being obese, according to America's Health Rankings. If Pennsylvanians were rewarded for things like low body mass indexes and cholesterol levels through a discount by their health insurance providers, would they be encouraged to, as I like to say, “get it right, get it tight?”

As a political science student, I had a rare opportunity to question Congressman Jason Altmire (D-PA), 4th congressional district, about Pennsylvania’s escalating obesity rates. An expert on health care reform, Altmire voted against the House version of the health care reform bill. In his response to my question, he said that one of the things he was unhappy about within the House version of the bill was that it made no provision for rewarding fit individuals with health insurance discounts. Altmire also added that such a provision is being considered for the Senate version of the bill, so we may see some action towards the obesity epidemic fairly soon.

The America's Health Ranking's website
features a blue box in the bottom left hand corner of all its pages. The box reads “New! State Obesity Calculator: As a nation, our excess pounds are creating excess costs. Find out what obesity is costing your state today, and if trends continue, what it may cost in the future.” The site reports that an estimated $3,686 million is spent in Pennsylvania due to obesity and will expand to an estimated $13,528 million in 2018 if we continue to expand our waistlines.

I have to wonder, though, if government lengths to reduce the obesity rate in the United States are going to prove beneficial. Losing weight is hard, I’ve done it. Would I have been more willing to do it if it was going to save me money? Probably not. I think being healthy is largely a personal choice motivated by personal goals.

I think that government efforts to reduce the country’s obesity rate are commendable and I encourage them, after all this is one sick, sick country. However, I find it kind of sad that the government has to take measures to intervene in the downward spiral of the health of its citizens. The government should be educating people that pop (soda) is bad for you. But when the government has to tax pop because you still drink it, even though you know it’s bad for you? That seems a little ridiculous. Not to mention, this discourages a healthy outlook of everything in moderation. You can still be healthy when you drink pop on occasion, so those that healthily drink pop in moderation suffer the consequences of those unhealthy individuals that just don’t care.

I guess basically what I’m saying is education, such as in the form of required nutrition labels for all food items at restaurants, yes. Rewards for the healthy, such as a discount in health insurance, yes. But punishment for those who practice the unhealthy, such as taxes on unhealthy food? Pathetic. If you’re going to eat vast amounts of fast food, you don’t need the government to punish you for it. You’re punished enough every time you huff and puff going up and down a set of stairs or whenever you struggle to button your jeans over your muffin top, and that's your choice.