Summary 4

Radley Balko, author of What You Eat is Your Business, begins his article by introducing a three day summit on obesity. He judges that the program will promote government intervention of obesity. Then Balko moves on, by pointing out what the government and governmental officials are currently doing to fight obesity. For example, state legislators and school boards are banning junk food and soda pop from school vending machines. Also, President George W. Bush budgeted two hundred million dollars for anti-obesity measures.
Following these discussions, Radley Balko argues that these methods are “the wrong way to fight obesity.” He points out that government measures to solve obesity problems by limiting the available choices, take away the responsibility of the individual to manage their weight, by eating healthier foods. Balko then lists actions taken by lawmakers and politicians, which have caused America's health care system to move toward socialism. Some of these actions include candidates for presidency promising to make health care a part of the public sector and states preventing higher premium charges to overweight clients from private health insurance companies. Actions of this nature “effectively remove any financial incentive for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.” Balko discusses how individuals are not being held responsible for their own health, which causes them to lose motivation to stay healthy. Balko then talks about how this will pave the way for more government restrictions of personal responsibility and lose of individual freedoms.
Radley Balko concludes with some suggestions on how to solve the public health problem of obesity. Overall, he hopes to achieve this purpose by taking obesity out of the public health sector. He states that the only reason obesity is a public issue is because the public is paying for the choices of individuals. By liberating insurance companies to reward people for healthy lifestyles and allowing increased access to medical and health savings accounts, individuals will have more accountability for their own health and thus they will start making better choices.