“The Weight of the Nation” Teach-In & Movie Preview

Welcome and Agenda

1. Welcome 1 minute

2. HBO Movie preview:The Weight of the the Nation 10 minutes

3. Discussion and Teach-in 10 minutes

4. Taking action 5 minutes

5. We can do it (video)! 4 minutes

The Weight of the NationPreview: HBO special documentary series

Documentary and public health campaign co-sponsored by Kaiser Permanente

With the Institute of Medicine, Centers for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health, and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

(Weight of the Nation video here)

The Weight of the Nation: Key Ideas

What was important, surprising, or new to you?

Why is Health a Union and KP Issue?

• We stand for fairness, but obesity and other health risks disproportionately affect working people, the poor, and communities of color.

• We stand for good jobs and benefits, but health risks make our benefits more costly.

A KP employee with one or more health risks costs $5,000 more every year. By reducing our health risks, we could cut the cost of our benefits by as much as one-third!

• We stand for affordable health care for all, but obesity and other risk factors threaten to overwhelm the health care system, making care for us and our communities unaffordable.

The economics of health reform are delicately balanced on keeping per capita cost growth below 5% after 2014.

Rising Obesity Rates Could Make Health Care Unaffordable

Causes: Junk Food Marketing

Change in price of items since 1978, relative to overall inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. The price of carbonated drinks, for example, has fallen 34 percent relative to all other prices.

Source: Leonhardt, 2010

Causes: Better Food Costs More!

Causes: Public Policy Drives High Cost

More causes of obesity and health risks

• Lack of safe routes to walk to school or work

• Lack of physical activity at work

• Lack of neighborhood access to fresh fruits and vegetables

• Lack of physical activity in schools

• Lack of safe parks, fields, or sports opportunities

• Can you think of others?

What to do?

• Public policy makes healthy food too expensive.• Many neighborhoods lack safe walking routes, access to

fresh produce, and safe parks.• With changes, our workplace could be healthier, and we

could work together to make healthier choices.

• Our children are bombarded by unhealthy marketing messages.

We can’t changes these things alone – to be effective, we need to work together in our unions and our communities!

Be part of the solution: spread the word!

• Host a screening in your home for 10 friends.

• Lead a teach-in for a UBT or at another KP facility.

• Lead a teach-in at a union meeting.

Getting healthy is part of our union strategy

Our Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions has agreed to these four long-term strategies:

1. Improve quality, service, safety and efficiency while preserving the best place to work

2. Grow KP and our unions to protect our model of care, our unions and our jobs

3. Improve the health of our workforce

4. Improve the health of our communities

We can do it!