Blue Cross Blue Shield Fighting Childhood Obesity
Saturday, December 26th, 2009According to the BCBSA website, BCBSA has started a new Pediatric Obesity and Diabetes Prevention Pilot Program in Texas, New Mexico, Mississippi, North Carolina and Kansas. Through this program Blue Cross Blue Shield plans on reducing the epidemic of childhood obesity and stop further cases of young people getting Type 2 Diabetes.
The plan consists informational toolkits for doctors to use as reference guides when addressing obesity. The kit was designed with the American Diabetes Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics to encourage healthy choices and was passed out in mid-November. BCBS collectively protects over 100 million Americans through individual health insurance and other health insurance policies, so this large effort by them should have a great impact.
The toolkit offers healthy lifestyle suggestions such as eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, limiting TV time to 2 hours a day, getting an hour of physical activity every day, and stop drinking sweetened drinks. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, an overweight teen has a 70% chance of becoming an obese adult which is one of the leading causes of health issues in our country. This type of action is proving very necessary.
Blue Cross Blue Shield member plans initiatives to increase access to affordable health insurance by the uninsured. PartVI
