Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Huckabee pushing health during legislative session

After losing more than 100 pounds when diagnosed with diabetes, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has gone on a health kick.

However, he's also working to make the state's residents healthier as well.

In his plans for the legislative session, entitled "A Lasting Legacy", Huckabee addresses the issue of health care.

He said our culture has been harmed by the side effects of a fast-food lifestyle. Drive through meals, the Internet, television and video games have lured many Arkansans into sedentary lifestyles, and this lifestyle has caught up with people.

According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Arkansas ranked:

* Eighth among 50 states in mortality due to heart disease.

* First in stroke mortality.

* Ninth in cancer overall.

*Sixth in deaths due to lung cancer.

Medicaid costs the state $3 billion annually and is growing at a rate of more than 9 percent a year, he said. This is because of the poor decisions people make in their lives where their health is concerned.

More than 75 percent of the Medicaid money, he said, is spent on chronic diseases. "Many of the problems are brought about by poor diet, a lack of physical activity and tobacco use."

In May 2004, the state announced the creation of Healthy Arkansas, a program designed to help the state change its course. Huckabee said people would get sick less if they ate better, exercised and avoided tobacco. Healthy Arkansas, he said, has catapulted the state into a leadership role nationally, and has become the standard by which other states have begun modeling their health initiatives.

In fact, Arkansas was the first state in America with a comprehensive program to measure the body mass index of every public school student.

Huckabee is once again proposing to merge the Department of Human Services with the Department of Health, saying it will save the state $2.5 million annually in administrative costs.

According to Huckabee, this will be a DHS acquisition of the ADH, and not a negotiated merger. The end result will have the ADH as a department under the DHS and some could lose their jobs as a result.

Merging the departments has the potential, he said, to improve program access and customer service as many Arkansans get services from both agencies.

Because both departments do many of the same functions administratively, these functions could be combined and made more efficient, he said.

In addition, having both agencies under one roof would offer "one stop shopping" for the clients.

According to Huckabee, the state could save an estimated $2,578,000 if the two agencies were combined. This, he said, includes savings in: accounts payable, $207,000; payroll, $43,000; financial management and funds management, $206,000; personnel, $620,000; purchasing, contracting and sub-grants, $627,000; communications, $225,000; Information technology technical support, $400,000; and email and Internet services, $250,000.

The BMI study in schools, he said is a step in the right direction, but more is needed. The study showed, of the 345,000 students who participated, 38 percent were overweight or at risk of becoming overweight.

Act 1220, he said will help implement programs analyzing the nutritional content of foods served in schools, but it is also important to integrate physical activity into the academic curriculum.

A 2002 survey showed some disturbing data about adults in Arkansas. The survey results include:

* 37 percent of adult Arkansans are overweight;

* 24 percent are obese;

* 80 percent don't eat the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables daily;

* 27 percent engage in no leisure time physical activity;

* 26 percent are smokers; and

* 8 percent have been told they have diabetes.

Arkansas's adults, he said, spend an estimated 45 percent of their waking hours in the workplace, and by focusing on work site wellness programs the health of the employees can be improved, which will, in turn, boost the state's economy.

In touting Healthy Arkansas, Huckabee said there are several pilot programs to help turn ideas into actions. These include:

* The ADH five-a-day program which provides employers with a program called Worksite Challenge: Fit with Five. This is a proposed 10-week program for the workplace focusing on increasing physical activity and the consumption of fruits and vegetables during the workday.

* The Governor's Council on Fitness's Out for Lunch program, where employees walk to a central location and receive healthy snacks donated by private companies, then walk back to work.

The goals of Healthy Arkansas, he said, are clearly defined, and Huckabee wants them implemented by January 2007. These include:

* Increasing from 64 percent to 85 percent the percentage of juveniles who are active at least three times a week for 20 minutes.

* Reducing the percentage of obese children from 11 to 5 percent.

* Reducing the percentage of obese adults from 23 to 15 percent.

* Reducing the percentage of adolescents who smoke from 36 to 16 percent.

* Reducing the percentage of adults who smoke from 24 to 12 percent.

* Increase from 15 to 30 percent the percentage of adults who exercise at least three times a week for 30 minutes.