Memo to Michelle Obama: Americans Still Aren’t Eating Their Greens
Maybe First Lady Michelle Obama should refocus her healthy eating campaign more on adults than children. Fewer than 20 percent of American adults are eating enough fruits and vegetables, newly released data from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey.
The United States Department of Agriculture’s nutrition guidelines recommend that Americans have two to three cups of vegetables every day, along with 1.5 to two cups of fruit. Based on those criteria, only 13 percent of adults in the survey ate enough fruit and a meager 9 percent of individuals ate enough vegetables. These numbers are worse than in years past. Between 2007 and 2010, 76 percent of Americans didn’t consume the recommended amount of fruit and 87 percent failed to eat enough vegetables.
Related Link: The 11 Worst Fast Food Restaurants in America
What’s more, while consumption of fruits and vegetables varies substantially from place to place, the residents of each and every state in the union fell short of the USDA recommendations. In Tennessee, 7.5 percent of residents consume enough fruit, while in Mississippi, a mere 5.5 percent of individuals eat enough vegetables. California ranked highest for eating both fruits and vegetables, but even there, just about 18 percent eat enough fruit and 13 percent eat enough veggies.
“Substantial new efforts are needed to build consumer demand for fruits and vegetables through competitive pricing, placement, and promotion in child care, schools, grocery stores, communities, and worksites,” the CDC report says.
The report comes out after a study published in last month’s JAMA Internal Medicine found that fewer than one-third of Americans are currently at a healthy weight. The majority of individuals are either overweight or obese.
Increasing Number of Americans Delay Medical Care Due to Cost: Gallup
From Gallup: “A record 25% of Americans say they or a family member put off treatment for a serious medical condition in the past year because of the cost, up from 19% a year ago and the highest in Gallup's trend. Another 8% said they or a family member put off treatment for a less serious condition, bringing the total percentage of households delaying care due to costs to 33%, tying the high from 2014.”
Number of the Day: $213 Million
That’s how much the private debt collection program at the IRS collected in the 2019 fiscal year. In the black for the second year in a row, the program cleared nearly $148 million after commissions and administrative costs.
The controversial program, which empowers private firms to go after delinquent taxpayers, began in 2004 and ran for five years before the IRS ended it following a review. It was restarted in 2015 and ran at a loss for the next two years.
Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who played a central role in establishing the program, said Monday that the net proceeds are currently being used to hire 200 special compliance personnel at the IRS.
US Deficit Up 12% to $342 Billion for First Two Months of Fiscal 2020: CBO
The federal budget deficit for October and November was $342 billion, up $36 billion or 12% from the same period last year, the Congressional Budget Office estimated on Monday. Revenues were up 3% while outlays rose by 6%, CBO said.
Hospitals Sue to Protect Secret Prices
As expected, groups representing hospitals sued the Trump administration Wednesday to stop a new regulation would require them to make public the prices for services they negotiate with insurers. Claiming the rule “is unlawful, several times over,” the industry groups, which include the American Hospital Association, say the rule violates their First Amendment rights, among other issues.
"The burden of compliance with the rule is enormous, and way out of line with any projected benefits associated with the rule," the suit says. In response, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said that hospitals “should be ashamed that they aren’t willing to provide American patients the cost of a service before they purchase it.”
See the lawsuit here, or read more at The New York Times.
A Decline in Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment
Between December 2017 and July 2019, enrollment in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) fell by 1.9 million, or 2.6%. The Kaiser Family Foundation provided an analysis of that drop Monday, saying that while some of it was likely caused by enrollees finding jobs that offer private insurance, a significant portion is related to enrollees losing health insurance of any kind. “Experiences in some states suggest that some eligible people may be losing coverage due to barriers maintaining coverage associated with renewal processes and periodic eligibility checks,” Kaiser said.
