Addressing the Obesity Epidemic
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or PPACA, contains a
number of provisions to address childhood obesity in the context of health care
and public health.
Source: Tackling the Obesity Epidemic; How Health Reform Helps Address
the Childhood Obesity Epidemic;
By Ellen-Marie Whelan and Sonia Sekhar May 24, 2010
Fact
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Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provisions
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Results
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Prevention is critical to fighting obesity
Obesity has likely accounted for up to $147
billion annually in direct care costs in recent years.
Indirect costs of obesity include worker absenteeism,
which is estimated to cost $4.3 billion annually,
and lower worker productivity, which costs $506 per obese worker
per year.
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The new law has many provisions that support and promote
an emphasis on prevention in general. Each of these provisions should focus
on and maximize efforts to reduce obesity:
All health plans including Medicaid and Medicare must
cover preventive services without co-pays and deductibles. (Sec. 1001)
Two new taskforces—the Preventive Services Task Force and
Community Preventive Services Task Force—will examine evidence and promote
effective preventive services. (Sec 4003)
A new Prevention and Public Health Fund will ensure
funding for prevention programs. (Sec. 4002)
The National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public
Health Council will coordinate the promotion of prevention initiatives across
government departments and agencies. (Sec. 4001)
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A recent
report found that investing $10 per person in activities that focus on improving
health status and preventing the development of chronic diseases could save
the country more than $16 billion annually—mostly from reduced health care
expenditures.
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Americans need to make healthier food choices
Children
eat almost twice as many calories when they eat a meal at a restaurant
compared to a meal at home.
Children consume on average one-third of their
calories from eating out.
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Chain restaurants will be required to post calorie and
other nutritional information about items on their menus. (Sec. 4205)
Vending machines must display the calories in each food
item so that buyers can read the nutrition label before purchasing the
product. (Sec. 4205)
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Consumers who see the calorie content prior to ordering
their food are known to choose
meals with fewer calories than those who do not see calorie information.
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Breastfeeding can prevent obesity
Experts at the Centers for Disease Control estimate that
breastfeeding could prevent
15 to 20 percent of obesity.
Counseling
has consistently been shown to help women decide to start and continue to
breastfeed their infants.
The World Health Organization has affirmed that
the long-term
benefits of breastfeeding include reduced risks of
obesity and consequent type-2 diabetes, as well as lower
blood pressure and total cholesterol levels in adulthood.
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Employers will have to provide break time and a place for
breastfeeding mothers to express milk. (Sec. 4207)
A new home visitation program will bring nurses into the
homes of new moms to offer assistance, which offers an opportunity to promote
breast feeding. (Sec. 2951)
The Pregnancy Assistance Fund will provide funding to
organizations who work with pregnant woman and new parents, which could
emphasize breastfeeding. (Sec. 10211-10214)
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A recent study found that if 90 percent of new mothers
exclusively breastfed their infants for six months, it would prevent an
estimated 911 deaths annually and save the nation at least $13
billion each year, including $592 million due to childhood obesity.
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Obesity is a risk factor for many chronic conditions
Approximately 70
percent of obese youth have at least one additional risk factor for
cardiovascular disease—such as high cholesterol or hypertension—and about
40 percent have at least two additional risk factors.
The estimated costs of obesity-related hospitalizations
increased from almost $126
million in 2001 to almost $238 million in 2005. The cost to Medicaid rose
from $53.6 million in 2001 to about $118 million in 2005.
Most health spending goes toward treating chronic
conditions; 75
percent of health care spending nationwide is for people with chronic
illnesses, and 83
percent of Medicaid spending is for people with chronic conditions.
Obese children contribute to high health care costs.
Studies have found that obese children stay nearly a full day (0.85 day)
longer in the hospital and this has resulted in $1,634
per patient per stay in increased hospital charges.
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The new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation will
develop new approaches to delivering and funding health care that will reward
multidisciplinary and team-based approaches to health care delivery and
outcome-based care. (Sec. 3021)
Medicaid programs will be able to pay more to providers
who agree to coordinate primary care, especially for patients with chronic
illnesses and services under a “health home.” (Sec. 2703)
A new provision within Medicaid will allow networks of hospitals,
doctors, and other health providers to band together to provide more
comprehensive services. They would receive single fixed monthly payments for
all patients and divide the payment between themselves—a global capitation
model. (Sec. 2705)
New community health teams will support agencies that
agree to provide community-based interdisciplinary, interprofessional care in
what will be known as a “health team.” (Sec. 3502)
New grants will be given to states to provide incentives
directly to Medicaid beneficiaries who successfully participate in programs
that help improve their health such as programs that help them lose weight.
(Sec. 4108)
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Decreasing
obesity will likely prevent chronic diseases. And fewer chronic illnesses
nationwide will prevent unnecessary hospital admissions, which will save the
nation billions of dollars each year.
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Certain populations have a higher risk of becoming obese
Among families living below the federal poverty level, 44.8
percent of children are overweight or obese, while 22.8 percent of
children living in families with incomes above 400 percent of poverty are
overweight or obese.
Recent data show that Hispanic and black high school
students have obesity
rates of 16.6 percent and 18.3 percent, respectively, which is
significantly higher than the 10.8 percent of their white counterparts who
are obese.
Community health centers are a good place to find these
at-risk children. A 2005 study showed that children who use community health
centers come from populations that are at risk of being obese and
collectively served nearly 5
million children in 2001.
The availability
of local healthy food options and fitness amenities—or lack thereof—are
significantly related to obesity.
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Community Health Workers, drawn from the communities where
they live, will promote positive health behaviors and outcomes in medically
underserved areas in linguistically and culturally appropriate ways. (Sec.
5313)
A new home visitation program will bring nurses into the
homes of new moms to offer assistance on areas that could include child
nutrition. (Sec. 2951)
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Interventions targeted to those communities most at risk
for obesity will help get the best services to the areas of greatest need.
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Care delivered in community-based settings can take
broader approaches to reducing obesity
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One school-based intervention that included multiple obesity
interventions had a decreased
prevalence of obesity among children who participated in the study (7.5
percent) versus those who did not (14.9 percent).
Childhood obesity demonstration project grants will be
issued to communities who are employing evidence-based interventions to
reduce childhood obesity. (Section 4306)
Community transformation grants will provide funds to
state and local governmental agencies and community-based organizations to
implement, evaluate, and disseminate effective community-based interventions.
(Sec 4201)
Community-based Collaborative Care Networks will support
groups of health care providers to provide comprehensive coordinated and
integrated care to low-income populations. (Sec. 10333)
New school-based health centers will provide comprehensive
primary health services to children. (Sec. 4101)
Expanded use of nurse-managed health clinics will help get
community-based primary care to areas of greatest need and strengthen the
health care safety net. (Sec. 5208)
The HHS secretary will convene national public-private
partnership to conduct a national prevention and health promotion outreach
and education campaign. (Section 4004)
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A recent report found that investing $10 per person on
community-based activities that focus on increasing physical activity,
improving nutrition, and preventing smoking and other tobacco use could save
the country more than $16
billion annually. This is a return of $5.60 for every $1 invested.
School-based clinics can offer care in a trusted
environment and help overcome the problems some children have accessing
primary health care.
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Better data collection and research will help us determine
what works in combating obesity
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Improved data collection in public programs in order to
analyze health disparities. (Section 4302)
The identification of key national indicators of health
and determination of which data are the most appropriate measures of each
indicator. (Section 5601)
A requirement that all health insurance plans report their
wellness and health promotion activities to the secretary of HHS. (Section 2717)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will every
two years prepare a report card on health outcomes, risk factors, and how the
nation cares for Americans with or at risk for diabetes. (Section 10407)
Patient-centered outcomes research, also known as
comparative effectiveness research, brings together various stakeholders to
set a research agenda to determine the appropriate interventions for certain
health conditions to meet specific populations’ needs. (Section 6301)
Increased funding for research that “optimizes the
delivery of public health services.” (Section 4301)
A Preventive Services Task Force will issue
recommendations to the health care community on the effectiveness of clinical
preventive services. (Section 4003)
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Developing relevant uniform data measures, uniform data
collection methods, and timely reporting of these data are vital to
developing strategies to address our nation’s obesit
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Source:
Ellen-Marie Whelan, Lesley Russell, and Sonia Sekhar, “Confronting America’s
Childhood Obesity Epidemic: How the Health Care Reform Law Will Help Prevent
and Reduce Obesity” (Washington: Center for American Progress, 2010), available
at http://www.americanprogress.
org/issues/2010/05/childhood_obesity_epidemic.html.