Tackling Obesity in The Mountain State

The Manchin administration has enlisted the state's largest provider of Medicaid coverage to help West Virginia's doctors in the fight against rampant obesity.

As The Associated Press' Tom Breen reports, state figures show that "more than 30 percent of adults in West Virginia are obese, the third-highest percentage in the country. It ranked second nationwide for its percentage of obese children, according to one recent study, Breen observes.

UniCare "will offer training to doctors and their staffs in obesity prevention and body mass index measurement," starting Oct. 30, Breen reports.

"The state’s Medicaid agency spends about $100 million on obesity-related costs annually," the article said, "while obesity cost the state Public Employees Health Insurance agency $93 million last year, about 18 percent of its budget."

The state's health care system was also the focus of a Thursday conference at The Greenbrier, The Register-Herald of Beckley reports.

"Community Health Network of West Virginia CEO Dave Campbell said $10 billion a year is spent on health care in the state, but only 3 percent of that is spent on preventative measures," that article said.

“What we have is a dysfunctional system,” Campbell is quoted as saying. “The statistics are staggering. Of the $4 billion a year spent in hospitals, we know that $1 out of every $10 is avoidable. Over $400 million would be avoidable if people had earlier access to prevention and primary care.”

Other bad news on the health care front arrived earlier this week, when The Charleston Gazette reported that in West Virginia, "more than 27 percent of women smoked during their pregnancy last year — the highest rate in the nation."