A report released on Monday by the Center for American Progress highlights the importance of curbing childhood obesity with measures found in the new healthcare reform law.
Statistics show that obesity is responsible for the loss of $4.3 billion a year for absenteeism and $506 per obese worker per year for lower worker productivity. Within the healthcare system, studies show that obesity has likely accounted for up to $147 billion annually in direct care costs in recent years.
CAP researchers said "bending the curve of burgeoning healthcare costs will intrinsically help reduce childhood obesity."
The report cites a recent Cornell University analysis showing that the inflation-adjusted price of fruits and vegetables rose 17 percent between 1997 and 2003, while the price of a McDonald's quarter-pounder and a Coca-Cola fell by 5.44 percent and 34.89 percent, respectively.
These and other statistics have many experts and health professionals concerned over the environment and culture of American life that is contributing to the growing childhood obesity epidemic in the United States.
According to CAP, the newly enacted healthcare reform law provides initiatives and programs that will provide many of the tools needed to implement the priorities and goals set by the president's task force, including ending childhood obesity.
"The precise capabilities of the provisions of the new law to address childhood obesity - both directly through programs such as nutrition labeling and indirectly through provisions such as an improved focus on maternal and child health - are governed by the specific authorities provided and also by the focus that is taken in their implementation," authors of the report said.
According to CAP experts, "this American obesity epidemic has been 30 years in the making and it will not be solved overnight. "
Factors such as nutrition, affordable access to healthy foods, and increased physical activity will collectively have a greater impact on the rates of obesity than healthcare, they said.
"Addressing these issues will require significant commitments from all levels of government, as well as communities, business, and families. But the health, social, and economic costs obesity imposes on our kids and our society are simply too large and too important for us to ignore," they added.