Summit
Focuses On Strategies That Promote Good Health
More than 250 grassroots community members, educators, employers, healthcare professionals, policymakers and individuals representing faith-based programs learned about strategies that encourage healthy eating and increased physical activity during the Healthy West Virginia Summit June 4-5 at the Charleston Embassy Suites.
The Summit was hosted by First Lady Gayle C. Manchin and the Partnership for a Healthy West Virginia according to Summit Planning Committee Chair Helen Matheny. In addition, the continuing education event was jointly sponsored by the CAMC Health Education and Research Institute with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.
The Partnership for a Healthy West Virginia is a statewide coalition of business, education, healthcare, non-profit and government organizations working to address the problem of obesity in the state. The West Virginia Medical Foundation continues to facilitate the work of the Partnership for a Healthy West Virginia with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.
National speakers at the Healthy West Virginia Summit included Katie Strong of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, New York Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs and Kenneth Thorpe, PhD, the Robert W. Woodruff Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy & Management, in the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University.
Assemblyman Ortiz’s presentation described the obesity prevention policy efforts in New York.
Commissioner Combs talked about the physical and fiscal impact of obesity and what Texas is doing to reverse an alarming national trend and epidemic.
Dr. Kenneth Thorpe, a nationally recognized expert on the nation’s health care system, provided a presentation on “What Accounts for the Rise in Health Care Spending” and also shared recommendations on what is needed to slow escalating health care costs.
Thorpe noted that major contributors to recent health care cost increases include the substantial rise in obesity and diabetes prevalence in the United States and the lack of preventative measures in health care planning and programs.
Among the key factors for the rise in health care costs, according to Thorpe, are:
1) 80 percent of total health care spending linked to chronically ill patients;
2) Chronically ill patients receive approximately 56 percent of all clinically recommended health care;
3) Rise in the prevalence of treated disease accounts for a substantial share of the growth in health care spending;
4) Rise in obesity prevalence in U.S. accounts for 27 percent in the growth in health care spending over the past 20 years;
5) Substantial dollar volume rise in spending linked to modifiable individual risk factors; and
6) Current cost containment initiatives and debate largely ignore the central role of prevention.
Thorpe stated that needed solutions must be more than just being “an issue of redesigning health insurance.” Health care in the U.S. is still “based on a 1960s model,” which he noted is “not in step with the clinical profile of today’s patients.” He added that obesity is a national challenge, and that there must be a fundamental restructuring of the U.S. health care delivery system.
Overall, Thorpe told the summit attendees that the nation needs to change its lifestyle and health habits in order to reduce the prevalence of health issues and diseases. He emphasized that these changes must be made, in particular, in our schools and our workplaces. “We must devote resources to developing effective health promotion and wellness programs for use in schools and the worksite.”
Three pre-Summit sessions also were offered. A “Walkable Communities Workshop”, was presented by Ronald W. Eck, P.E., Ph.D. of the West Virginia Local Technical Assistance Program, Civil and Environmental Engineering at West Virginia University. Dr. Terry Elliott and Dr. Norman Montalto presented the “Statewide Tobacco Cessation Training for Healthcare Providers.” Finally, a session titled "Making the Newest Food Guides Work for You," was presented by Amy M. Gannon, MS, RD, LD, Registered Dietitian-Family Nutrition Program, WVU Extension Service.
Sponsors for the event included be Better Network, Brickstreet Mutual Insurance, CAMC Health Education and Research Institute, the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, the Community Health Network of West Virginia, Mountain State BlueCross/BlueShield, PhRMA, Sisters of St. Joseph Charitable Fund, Sisters of St. Joseph Health and Wellness Foundation, United Bank, Inc., The Greenbrier, the West Virginia Action for Healthy Kids Team, the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, West Virginia Child Nutrition Center, the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, the West Virginia Department of Education, the West Virginia Hospital Association, the West Virginia Medical Foundation, the West Virginia Office of Healthy Lifestyles and the West Virginia State Medical Association.
Larry Malone of Malone Consulting Services contributed to this article.
