Wellness and prevention mostly absent in health reform bills

"Despite Americans' poor lifestyle choices and the chronic problems they spawn, the health-care reform proposals being considered in Congress contain relatively little to promote wellness," The Tennessean reports. While "more than one-fourth of all adults in the U.S. are obese," the "word 'obesity' does not appear in the 1,000-plus page bill approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. A Senate health reform bill contains only two obesity provisions." Among the wellness provisions in the Senate and House bills is one that "would allow companies to rebate up to 50 percent of an insurance premium for people who complete a wellness program." (Theobald, 10/23).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.