Executive summary
Having a good health is a dream of every person and all government all over the world are developing policies that are targeted at ensuring that its population has a good health. When a country or an individual is healthy, then he can be a productive person in life. At the same time, he can enjoy life. To maintain a good health, there is the need of intervention of the government and individuals. Everybody is responsible for his health and beyond what he or she cannot avoid, and then the government comes in.
To manage ones and a countries health is thus deliberate actions taken by all the parties involved. Diseases that result from nutrition are on the rise; obesity is a nutritional disease that results when a person has accumulated fats in his body, to a level that it can be harmful to him. Children are not left by the wave of obesity as they find themselves obese in different situation and circumstances (San, 2003). Modern lifestyle is the major cause of obesity; when an obesity bill is enacted then it will enact methods and strategies to cure the disease.
Introduction
In today’s changed eating habits, the kind of food that people are taking is leading to obesity. It is feared that the number of years that the young generation is likely to live will be reduced than that of its. Health is of great importance to the duration of time that someone lives in this world. Realizing this, September was regarded as the worlds children’s obesity month. The month is set aside and supported by world food program to teach people on good eating habits. Business people have taken the advantage of an increased population and at almost every corner in a street, there is a fast food restaurant that has a list of choices that one needs to make.
In the menu, the greatest number of foods is not healthy, to children, the youth and adults. In America, health officials are of the observation that there are 23million obese or overweight children in United States of America between the age of two tears and nineteen years. Obese children are not healthy and are at the risk of developing diseases later in life or at tender age. The worst of the diseases is cancer (Kopelman, 2005).
Health care policy
A health care policy is a system put in place for meeting the health care problems of a specific population group. The term “health care’s” has replaced the term “medicine” that has been in use for quite some time. Health care policies are used for the protection of the society. A healthy population is the greatest asset that a country has. Health care policies should be established in such a way that they are affordable and accessible to the entire population. There should be both private insurance policies as well as government-sponsored programs that aim at providing this service to the greatest number of people
The themes of the policy;
- Sensitizing parents on good feeding process to their children, this will be offended in pregnancy clinic where feeding mechanisms of a child before birth and after both will be advocated.
- Creating awareness on the dangers brought about by being obese, both children and adults obesity
- Develop guiding brochures to be given alongside birth notification certificate to newborn. The brochures will advise the parent on right feeding process that he should adopt.
- Incorporate obesity cases in health insurance policies
Areas to address in the Prevention/cure bill
An old saying holds that it is better to prevent than to cure; prevention of obesity should take centre stage than curing it. The right and surest way that obesity can be cured is through looking at nutrition. The kind of food fed should be looked into to ensure that it is health; healthy food contains adequate nutrients that one need for survival. Parents should go ahead and teach their children at tender age the need to eat health at all times.
Socialization develops attributes to a person and children are affected more; the kind of environment that children are brought about in will influence the kind of lifestyle they will live in the future. If parents are careless of what they eat, then their children are likely to follow suit and suffer from obesity.
To attain this goal of ensuring that parents are sensitized of the need to feed their children. Metabolism in children starts from infancy. If the food that a parent eats when pregnant area regulated, it leads to an early prevention of obesity. Feeding programs for pregnant mothers and fathers of newly born children should be regularly conducted. In the country, there should be set programs that are aimed at ensuring that parents are not ignorant of what their children eat, they should be held responsible of any danger caused by food given. Breast-feeding up to age of six months should be encouraged since it has benefits to both the mother and the child.
In preventing becoming obese, physical exercises, is another way of preventing a child from becoming obese. Exercises should be introduced early enough in a child’s life. An early ages, exercises may be informed of plays that engage the body. Exercises burn more calories in human bodies and thus the fats that could have been accumulated to cause obesity will be reduced. Parents are advised to encourage their children to participate in sports and other activities that involve the body.
Exercises have both preventive and curative objectives (Pool, 2001). Such sports include tennis, soccer, basketball, swimming and gymnastics; care should be exercised not to involve children with heart problems in these kinds of sports as they are likely to suffer due to their conditions. Other than controlling weight, children can interact with their peers, socialize and develop good interpersonal skills. This will go far in assisting them in life. Sports in modern society have become a career where there are professional sports men like in football, athletes and tennis.
As a way of entertainment, sports develop a competitive mind in children, a character that is likely to assist the child in later years. Some children have no problem with playing with their mates and most cases they are at a lower risk of being obese. If parents realize that his child is not active in the field, it is his/her responsibility to instill the need to play. Modern lifestyle has contributed to different ways of entertainment. This includes the invention of computer games, televisions and play station that can limit how active a child is in the field. Parents should take deliberate measures to ensure that they monitor the way their children get involved in outside games. This will go far in preventing obesity in children (Institute of Medicine, 2004).
Development and implementation of the bill
In recognition of the need of an effective health care management system, mechanisms should be developed to ensure that programs stated by the bill are followed to ensure proper implementation. The bill target population with obesity problems and aims at deterring any future occurrence. The approach taken by the bill involves the governments, private sector and the parents to ensure that the health in children has been attained. The next step after developing the system is having ways that measure the level of efficiency of the systems. One of the ways to make sure that the objectives set by the system are working is having periodical checks, evaluation and conduction more research about a certain policy (Keller, 2008)
Conclusion
When a legislation/ policy have been implemented, there are some positive results expected from the policy. The results should be the desired objective aimed at by the legislation. The policy is likely to offer a solution to the growing problem of obesity in the United States by addressing the root cause of the disease.
References
Institute of Medicine. (2004). Childhood Obesity in the United States: Facts and Figures. Web.
Keller, K. (2008). Encyclopedia of Obesity. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications, Inc.
Kopelman, G. (2005). Clinical obesity in adults and children: In Adults and Children. New Jersey: Blackwell Publishing.
Pool, Robert (2001). Fat: Fighting the Obesity Epidemic. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
San Juan, E., (2003). Challenging the Theory and Practice of Contemporary American Studies. The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 25(1),303–333.