Don't miss Michael Pollan's great piece in the Times today about what it will really take to make Americans healthier.
Short Answer: Agribusiness Reform
We’re spending $147 billion to treat obesity, $116 billion to treat diabetes, and hundreds of billions more to treat cardiovascular disease and the many types of cancer that have been linked to the so-called Western diet. One recent study estimated that 30 percent of the increase in health care spending over the past 20 years could be attributed to the soaring rate of obesity, a condition that now accounts for nearly a tenth of all spending on health care.
Here is the truly sickening part...
And so the government is poised to go on encouraging America’s fast-food diet with its farm policies even as it takes on added responsibilities for covering the medical costs of that diet. To put it more bluntly, the government is putting itself in the uncomfortable position of subsidizing both the costs of treating Type 2 diabetes and the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup...
The market for prescription drugs and medical devices to manage Type 2 diabetes, which the Centers for Disease Control estimates will afflict one in three Americans born after 2000, is one of the brighter spots in the American economy. As things stand, the health care industry finds it more profitable to treat chronic diseases than to prevent them. There’s more money in amputating the limbs of diabetics than in counseling them on diet and exercise.
Why do people eat so much corn syrup?
Because it is now in almost every processed food available to American grocery shoppers. It is very difficult to avoid.
This poison has become ubiquitous largely due to farm subsidies that encourage the overproduction of corn in the USA. Much of that is turned into corn syrup, and added to our foods. People eat, drink, and ingest this stuff way beyond what the human body was designed to handle.
But there is hope.
If we can create a health care system that rewards doctors for keeping people healthy rather than just getting paid for treatment, the excesses of agribusiness will become apparent and reform of our food system could lead to healthier diets nationwide.
But these rules may well be about to change — and, when it comes to reforming the American diet and food system, that step alone could be a game changer. Even under the weaker versions of health care reform now on offer, health insurers would be required to take everyone at the same rates, provide a standard level of coverage and keep people on their rolls regardless of their health. Terms like "pre-existing conditions" and "underwriting" would vanish from the health insurance rulebook — and, when they do, the relationship between the health insurance industry and the food industry will undergo a sea change.
If making Americans healthier is the goal, health care reform is just the start of what needs to be done.
Read the full piece here