Speech April 15, 2008

Melissa Mayo

ENG 112 SA

Mrs. Russell

Spring 2008

 

Healthcare

 

            “If you are one of the 45 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, you will have it after this plan becomes law. No one will be turned away because of a preexisting condition or illness.” This statement was spoken by Barack Obama in a speech he gave about a year ago. He has come up with a new plan to fix the nation’s health care situation at the moment, to make it where every single person can have access to an affordable health insurance plan, no matter who you are. There are too many Americans without insurance today because of skyrocketing medical costs, but there are also too many Americans with chronic illnesses to be without health insurance. I believe we should fully back up Obama’s plan, because having insurance is such a necessary asset that could end up saving many lives.

While there are many healthcare issues out there, obesity is one of the leading health problems in the United States today. Obesity is currently affecting the entire nation, in one way or the other. It’s either affecting someone by having the condition, or knowing someone who is obese that you have to deal with by taking care of them or companies that have to pay insurance and medical costs. About 30% of Americans are obese, with the main concern being with children. According to American Sports Data research, the number of obese children has at least tripled over the past 20 years. Another alarming fact is that the number of obese Americans has increased an entire 15% since 1980, and it’s not showing any signs of slowing down. Even though obesity is one of the biggest overall health problems, the condition itself creates many other problems as well. Being extremely overweight can also make a person susceptible to high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, strokes, and breathing problems. All these illnesses can create numerous health issues that need medical attention, but so many Americans are unable to afford the costs. With plenty of research showing the high increase of obesity, especially at such early ages, the nation seems to be eating their way to a slow and early death.

The reason why obesity related health issues are such a big problem is that it is costing U.S. businesses too much money. They try to cover their employee’s health insurance, but with such high costs and so many Americans diagnosed with the recently stated conditions, it costs the businesses around $45 billion a year (Bloomberg). They try to cover their employees as much as they can, however, these specific medication costs are 77% higher for obese patients. The more obese people there are, the higher it costs businesses to cover them. This causes a huge dilemma, because, not only are businesses losing money to provide help for illnesses caused by obesity, they are losing workers at an early age to the disease who can’t get enough help in enough time.

Along with Obama’s healthcare plan, a lot more action needs to be taken to stop the obesity epidemic. It’s a problem that can certainly be avoided, which is why we should focus on helping children the most, since too many are becoming seriously overweight at much earlier ages than ever before. If we want to slow the increasing numbers so that future health problems as adults can be prevented, work needs to be done to stop it now. Schools and families can promote physical activity and healthy eating habits by teaching kids about how it has become such a problem and how it can affect them as they grow older. Otherwise, Obama’s main focus is helping the adults and families get affordable insurance plans and cheaper treatments for illness. 5-7% of the entire healthcare budget is being spent on obesity related health issues, which is more than what it used to be, but is still not enough. Obama plans to spend more of the budget to help obese Americans, as well as any others with conditions that are shortening the average life expectancy because so many don’t have access to adequate medical help. With his plan and our own contribution to controlling our habits to prevent health problems for ourselves, we can look forward to being a happier, healthier nation.