Alliance Healthcare Initative tackles childhood obesity head on

An alliance of health groups and insurance companies recently announced an initiative that will assist in battling one of America's biggest health problems in children: obesity.

Insurance companies will usually not pay for anti-obesity services like counseling. Under this initiative, insurance companies would pay for up to 4 visits with a dietitian over a year's time. Under this program, doctors and dietitians will be reimbursed for helping children and their families adopt healthier lifestyles.

What has lead to this initiative is the realization that:

• 1/3 of American children are overweight or obese
• these children need special services like monitoring for onset of diseases like heart disease and diabetes
• these overweight children will most likely become overweight adults if parents don't get much needed help in changing family lifestyles

Health insurers who have signed on:

• Aetna
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina
• Blue Cross and Blue Sheild of Massachusetts
• WellPoint

Hopefully, more insurance companies will be signing on as this initiative gets more press. If you have an overweight child, check with your doctor and health insurer for paid programs to help you and your family.

Nourish Interactive offers free online nutrition education games for kids and interactive tools to help families make healthy food and fitness choices. Our free educational games and tools are available in English and Spanish.