Our Health Policy Matters

Obesity is a disease, just like cancer, heart disease, mental illness, and addiction.  That’s the message of experts at a recent  Future of Medicine summit on the subject. And there are missing pieces in the way states with some of the largest concentrations of obese residents, like Florida, Connecticut, Texas, California, New York, and New Jersey, approach the epidemic. As recently as 25 years ago, obesity was uncommon in America .  Most states didn’t even collect data on it, and not a single state reported obesity in more than 15% of its population.  Connecticut and Florida both reported rates under 10%. The CDC map at that link shows what has happened since.  Every state in the country quickly grew bigger.  By 2010, in 12 states, including Connecticut, between 20% and 25% of the population was obese.  In 24 states, including Florida, between 25% and 30% of the population was obese.  In the remaining 12 states, including T...

Obesity is a disease, just like cancer, heart disease, mental illness, and addiction.  That’s the message of experts at a recent  Future of Medicine summit on the subject. And there are missing pieces in the way states with some of the largest concentrations of obese residents, like Florida, Connecticut, Texas, California, New York, and New Jersey, approach the epidemic. As recently as 25 years ago, obesity was uncommon in America .  Most states didn’t even collect data on it, and not a single state reported obesity in more than 15% of its population.  Connecticut and Florida both reported rates under 10%. The CDC map at that link shows what has happened since.  Every state in the country quickly grew bigger.  By 2010, in 12 states, including Connecticut, between 20% and 25% of the population was obese.  In 24 states, including Florida, between 25% and 30% of the population was obese.  In the remaining 12 states, including T...