Unless something is done about the worsening health status of Americans — especially school children — the price of couch potatoes will bankrupt government, says a southern governor.
As Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and Governor Napolitano were leading a National Governors Association meeting in Phoenix on obesity Dec. 14, a legislative task force was debating whether physical education classes should be mandatory.
Mr. Huckabee, who shed 117 pounds after he was diagnosed with diabetes, said 700,000 people will die in the next year from diseases associated with inactivity and overeating, and the nation’s children are vulnerable to premature death because of sedentary lifestyles and poor nutrition.
“We are now living with the first generation of young Americans who are not expected to live as long as their parents and grandparents,” Mr. Huckabee said. “We’ve raised a generation of children who think they haven’t eaten unless it comes out of a paper sack or a cardboard box.”
Calling for “a new culture of health” in state government, he said that without a focus on preventing hypertension, diabetes, cancer and other diseases associated with obesity, “Our economy simply cannot sustain the overwhelming explosive growth that we’re having in health (costs).”
Mr. Huckabee and Ms. Napolitano, both Democrats, were the only governors who attended the two-day meeting at a south Phoenix resort, but 35 states were represented by other officials. Each state reported what it is doing to fight obesity and promote physical exercise and nutrition.
Arizona’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Plan says the state’s obesity rate increased among adults by 80 percent from 1990 to 2002, with 57.1 percent of Arizona adults being overweight or obese. Twenty-four percent of high school students are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight, and 24 percent of the state’s low-income children between the ages of 2 and 5 are overweight or at risk of becoming so.
The plan cites studies that show overweight and obesity in Native American children is higher than in other children in the United States.
Huckabee: Spending has political risks
Mr. Huckabee says state government spending to reduce obesity carries some political risks because “There’s no immediate return on investment. It will take a generation… but the benefits outweigh the risks.” And there’s the risk of government intrusion.
The governor and the Arkansas General Assembly in 2003 took that risk by mandating that parents of the state’s 450,000 public school children be provided with a confidential annual Body Mass Index (BMI) of their kids, along with an explanation of health effects associated with obesity.
The BMI is a measure of weight relative to height: weight in pounds times 703 divided by height in inches squared. A BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight, and 30 or greater is considered obese.
Rep. Anderson’s task force
Rep. Mark Anderson, R-18, who is working on a bill to make physical education classes mandatory, says he is willing to consider what other states are doing for better childhood health, but “my first reaction (to BMI screening) is that it might be too intrusive. I don’t know how necessary it is. You should [already] know if your child is overweight. The money would be better spent addressing the problem.”
Comprising educators, legislators, health professionals and parents, Mr. Anderson’s task force on mandatory PE voted Dec. 14 that at least 90 minutes of physical education should be required in elementary and middle schools and that additional physical activity be worked into every school day.
Mr. Anderson said the cost of the PE requirement will be determined by staff, and if it’s too expensive, the plan might be dropped.
Ms. Napolitano had no comment on Mr. Anderson’s PE proposal, but added that because of concentration on passing the AIMS test, “Physical education has dropped off the table.”