Trim waistlines, trim costs State officials estimate that obesity costs Texas businesses $9.5 billion annually. If the obesity rate and the cost of health care continue to increase as projected, the cost to businesses could reach $32.5 billion per year by 2030, according to a 2011 report released by Comptroller Su- san Combs.
The price tag for obesity is nearly
three times the estimate Ms. Combs re- leased in 2007. In February 2011, the comptroller released a report, Gaining Costs, Losing Time: The Obesity Crisis in Texas,
www.window.state.tx.us/special rpt/obesitycost. It calculates the cost of obesity-related health care, absenteeism, decreased productivity, and disability to Texas employers. The report estimates Texas employers paid $4 billion in direct health insurance costs related to obesity in 2009. Indirect- ly, obesity cost employers an estimated $5.4 billion in 2009, including $1.6
billion for obesity-related absenteeism, $3.5 billion for reduced work productiv- ity, and $320 million for obesity-linked disability. Dr. Terk says TPHC’s support of im-
provements to the nutrition and physi- cal education policies affecting young Texans in schools “is critical to turning around the crisis of obesity that contin- ues to affect our population.” In 2011, lawmakers failed to pass many obesity prevention bills during the regular session, including Senate bills 185, 186, 224, and 225 by Senator Nelson.
SB 224 would have established a
program to recognize schools that im- plement successful coordinated school health programs, improve fitness assess- ment results, and demonstrate active school health advisory councils (SHACs). SB 225 would have required school dis- tricts’ campus improvement plans to include strategies to comply with the
Texas school nutrition policy and would have required SHACs’ reports to summa- rize the districts’ compliance with the physical education (PE) requirements. SB 185 would have increased the re-
quired daily physical activity for students in grades 6 through 8 from four to all six semesters. SB 186 would have restored a half-credit of PE and a half-credit of health education to graduation require- ments. In 2009, House Bill 3 reduced re- quired PE credits to one.
TPHC is again advocating for restora- tion of a half-credit of PE and health ed- ucation as a requirement for graduation. The coalition’s obesity priorities also call for strengthening the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA’s) prekindergarten health standards related to nutrition and physi- cal activity and allocating a specified percentage of the Texas Department of Agriculture’s health and nutrition grants toward programs serving young children. Senator Nelson says she will continue to “fight for more physical education in our schools.”
“Healthy habits mean Texans will live
longer, better lives and incur fewer costs related to chronic illnesses associated with unhealthy behavior,” she said. A 2009 TEA study indicates students
In Texas, a child is abused or neglected every 8 minutes. - Children’s Defense Fund
Let your donation of used medical equipment assist children struggling from homelessness, poverty, abuse and neglect!
We accept used medical equipment and accessories.
MedEquipmentforHope.org Please submit inquiries online or call (888) 814-7360
Arms of Hope is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Tax-deductible gifts will be sold and the proceeds from sales will help fund Arms of Hope’s programs benefiting disadvantaged children.
30 TEXAS MEDICINE February 2013
MedicalAd.indd 1 11/13/12 11:15 AM
who are more physically fit are more likely to perform well on tests and have fewer disciplinary problems at school. Children who were more physically fit achieved higher standardized test scores than students who were not. In addi- tion, schools with a higher percentage of fit students earned better state perfor- mance ratings than those with a lower percentage of fit students.
Funding a likely challenge DSHS requested $5.75 billion in fund- ing for the 2014–15 biennium, about $40 million less than the 2012–13 esti- mated budget. The department is asking for about $179 million to fund adult and child immunizations and for approxi- mately $16 million for chronic disease prevention and $23 million for tobacco program funding for the next biennium. In June, the Legislative Budget Board informed Texas state agencies their base- line requests for general revenue funds and general revenue-dedicated funds
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68