When most people think about a worker’s compensation case, you think of someone injuring themselves on the job, and they are compensated because it happened as a direct result of their duties at work.
No rational company would resent a worker that right. But, now there’s a case of worker’s compensation in Schererville, Indiana that is sure to create a spark in the health care debate, and bring on some emotional arguments from people who are at a healthy weight.
In 2007, at 340 pounds, Adam Childers was working at The Gourmet Pizza in Schererville when he was smacked in the back by a freezer door. He needed surgery, and was going to be compensated for the procedure. Perfectly rational, right? Well, there’s more to the story.
Childers could not get the back surgery performed to alleviate his pain until he underwent weight loss surgery first to drop significant weight from his frame. But, surely Childers couldn’t expect that his employer would pay for this procedure, would he?
Much to my own surprise, I have largely stayed closed-lipped about the health care bill, town halls, and debates over these last few months. Part of the reason is that I have seen it mostly as a way to get health care to the under-insured and uninsured. Usually, health care is an area where I am vocal about the power and possibility of disease prevention. I want everyone to get on the “prevention bandwagon” and take steps today to be healthier – whether it is a community that secures funding to keep their pool and workout room open, or an employer who invests in “wellness” programs and health fairs, or families that decide to prepare a healthy meal at home and go for a walk together in the evenings.
There’s no doubt that the bulk of the nation’s health care costs are based on personal choices. Smoking, high blood pressure and being overweight are the top risks for early death, hitting more than one million early deaths each year, with physical inactivity, high blood sugar and alcohol use not far behind, according to an April study by the Harvard School of Public Health. The price tag for obesity has propelled to $147 billion a year, new government studies show, and smoking costs about $193 billion in medical expenses and lost productivity.
The federal government’s stimulus plan isn’t just for the fat cats of Wall Street. It’s also being aimed at reversing our country’s obesity epidemic.
The Obama administration is going to provide states and local governments with money to control obesity, which will include investing in public transportation to encourage more walking, says Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Sebelius says that the majority of the $1 billion stimulus plan appropriated by Congress for disease prevention would go to a CDC-planned initiative to fight obesity, heart disease and other chronic conditions.
While the obesity epidemic in the U.S. has been well-documented, it hasn’t quite been put this way before: nearly 10 percent of all medical costs in the United States are attributed to obesity.
That’s astounding. The price tag amounts to $147 billion a year in direct medical costs – that’s just over nine percent of all medical spending here in the U.S.
“Obesity, and with it diabetes, are the only major health problems that are getting worse in this country, and they are getting worse rapidly,” says Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While worries over the economy and the wars we are conducting around the world dominate our consciousness, we continue to lose a battle on a different front. American waistlines are continuing the dangerous trend of expansion.
Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, and there’s no end in sight to this dangerous trend. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2007 25.6 percent of Americans were obese. But in 2008, it crept up to 26.1 percent.
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