Obesity - fat tax and other notes

Alabama, one of the fattest states in the Union, is thinking about a fat tax. Speaking safely from Kansas, I say go for it.....

Alabama plans fat tax:

Beginning in 2010, Alabama, which has the second highest obesity rate in the country, will start charging all of its employees an extra $25 per month for health insurance. (Currently, single workers pay nothing; family plans cost $180 a month.)

But there's a way to avoid the fee: Get a check-up at an in-office "wellness center," where nurses will check for diabetes and hypertension and measure blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose levels and Body Mass Index (BMI).

The idea is to encourage employees to act responsibly, lose weight and lower their health care needs. But critics say it will humiliate and stigmatize obese employees and amounts to nothing short of a "fat tax."

New York begins tracking obesity in schools From the AP:

Legislation passed in 2007 goes into effect this month, requiring public schools outside of New York City to collect and report a summary of students' weights and body mass indexes as part of an effort to combat childhood obesity.

"Whatever you can measure, you can improve," said Dr. Richard Daines, the state health commissioner. "By requiring the measurement of body mass index, I think we'll see some improvement."

Doctors will now be required to test students when they come in for a student health certificate _ which is mandatory for attendance at New York schools. The information will be reported to schools, creating a set of data that will allow health officials to evaluate obesity levels based on geography.


Other headlines:

Down Under: Limiting advertising will cut obesity