Campaigning for a Healthier America

We starting giving employees $20 off their insurance premiums each month for doing a health-risk assessment. And 18,000 signed up for that. Then we figured, we were giving people breaks to walk outside and smoke, so why not give employees 30 minutes a day to exercise that's not on their lunch hour? We provide cessation tools to smokers like nicotine gum and patches. We're doing that with state employees and with Medicaid patients. Last month, on our Web site, we listed every walking trail in the state by county.

How do you plan to implement the initiative on a national level?

No one state has all the answers, but everyone has a piece of the puzzle. It's important to get together and share ideas. We look at what other states are doing, too. The heart of this initiative is about changing the culture of health, not just creating a program for health. We have a culture of disease: how to treat it, how much to spend on it, how to cure it. But we don't focus on how to prevent it.

Can we legislate healthier lifestyles?

Attitude changes behavior, not the other way around. I personally don't think the government should put a tax on cheeseburgers or regulate the size of a steak. That would create absolute disaster. Then you shift the debate to one of personal rights from one of good health ... We should make it the cultural norm to practice healthy habits. No one ever asked me how to gain weight. But thousands have asked me how I lost weight.

© 2005