Back when Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) first passed in 2010, I knew we were heading for deep water, and not because I am against expanding insurance coverage per se, but because, as a practicing physician, I knew that coverage didn’t guarantee you care. Not only that, but I knew that the combination of big insurance which can justify higher premiums if everyone is sicker or at risk of chronic illness, and big pharma, which also benefits from sicker patients, meant that there were built in incentives for our worst health habits to be reinforced.
The COVID pandemic worsened these bad habits as we became more sedentary, isolated, more anxious, drank more, exercised less, and our weight ballooned. These days, over 40% of American adults are obese, and twenty percent of children, compared with only 12% of adults in the early 1990s. This obesity is precisely the reason I treat so much hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and even lower back and joint pain, all of which worsen with excess weight and the inflammation it causes. Surgeries of the hip, knee, and back could often be avoided if people weighed less.
And the tools we use to treat these problems are often too aggressive. Yoga, acupuncture, physical therapy, and even chiropractic care can and should delay or even take the place of some of our most costly pills and surgeries.
Now along comes Make America Healthy Again, led by RFK Jr, with its hyper focus on battling ultra-processed foods, food dyes, seed oils, obesity, excessive pill popping, and sedentary behavior. The more food and insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies push back against this approach, the more I am hoping and rooting for bipartisan support. Bobby Kennedy comes from a long line of reformers, from his two uncles to his father. He is carrying on in their tradition when it comes to food and lifestyle.
