Will Obesity Treatment Medical Health Insurance More Affordable?May, 2007
Obesity treatment and prevention, particularly in the case of obese and overweight children, is the goal of New Jersey's brand new Office of Nutrition and Fitness. The first of its kind nationwide, will it lead to a much needed drop in premiums for
New Jersey health insurance coverage?
New Jersey has the highest national percentage of overweight and obese children under age 5, making this a particularly important topic for the Garden State. Worse yet, medical health insurance is in equally poor condition; there are approximately 1.4 million people who lack health insurance in New Jersey, including about 250,000 children.
Unlike the rest of the country, the number of uninsured New Jersey children increased by 37% from 2000 to 2005, compared with a 9% decrease nationwide over the same period.
What's going on here? Many say that New Jersey health insurance coverage is just too expensive, and their state funded medical health insurance for children, Family Care, hasn't been properly applied across the state.
A report released on Wednesday by New Jersey Policy Perspective, the AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, reports that medical health insurance has not been available to African American and Hispanic children in the same numbers as that for white children. And, poor nutrition and lack of exercise hits these same communities just as hard.
Obesity is one of the single biggest factors in the rising costs of
medical health insurance, costing around $79 billion nationwide, and in most cases, another $10 billion or more in state funds.
Facts on:
New Jersey Health Insurance Coverage
Did you know...
There are approximately 1.4 million people who lack health insurance in New Jersey?
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So, will the Office of Nutrition and Fitness help bring down the cost of New Jersey health insurance coverage? In the long run, it's entirely possible. By tackling obesity and providing obesity treatment the healthcare system stands to save billions.
But in the meantime there are too many uninsured children out there, and emergency measures are needed to protect our most vulnerable population right away.
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