Michigan Governor Snyder, is proposing a new system to track childhood obesity, inorder to halt the ever growing numbers of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancers, and various other diseases, associated with obesity. It would become mandatory for doctors to report the body mass index of children under the age of 18, to the Michigan Care Improvement Registry. Other than the self inflicting complications that arise from obesity, Columbia University studies reveal a 66 billion dollar cost to the American healthcare system annually.
Much like the Russian vodka case, a visibly harmful problem has arisen, which warrents the need of government intervention. Areas with a denser population of overweight people can be found and targeted. This could give way to patterns being found explaining why places have higher obesity levels, when children begin showing signs of becoming over weight, and other insightful models. With a more accurate number of childhood obesity cases the government will be able to produce better solutions, which will benefit the society in the long run.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/14/us-obesity-michigan-idUSTRE78D63G20110914
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