Americans are unhealthy and we are paying a heavy price for it.

 Every year, our nation becomes more obese and out of shape, increasing our susceptibility to illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease and placing added burdens on our health care system that are completely avoidable. About 60 million American adults are now considered obese. If this trend continues, 69 million Americans will be obese by 2010.

Poor diet and inactivity are the second leading cause of preventable death after smoking.  According to the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service, they cause nearly 365,000 deaths per year. While extra-value meals, with their huge sodas and bottomless servings of french fries, seem enticing at the counter, they are costing us billions in lost productivity and added health care costs. Obesity alone is adding $123 billion to the nation’s healthcare costs each year.

Obesity and physical inactivity are major risk factors for chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Diabetes has increased by 49 percent in the past 10 years - 18 million people now have diabetes - and one out of every three people born in 2000 will develop diabetes if there is no change in current health habits.

In 2006, spending on health care in America is expected to approach $2.2 trillion and will account for more than 16 percent of gross domestic product. The gross domestic product (GDP) is the value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a year and one way economists measure the size of a country’s economy. To put the amount of money America spends on health care in perspective, it is more than the GDP of China, the most populous country on the planet.

Simply put, health care spending is threatening the health of our economy. And poor health is threatening the state of our Union.

Americans are spending more and more of their income on health care. Competition to traditional indemnity insurance from health management organizations and other managed care plans slowed the increase in spending during the 1990s, but since then, health care costs and spending have climbed faster than personal income or inflation. In recent years health insurance premiums have skyrocketed.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the costs of Medicare, Medicaid, and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program will total $578 billion and account for more than one-fifth of all federal spending this year. Other mandatory federal health spending, such as employee insurance, will likely add another $247 billion to that figure.

This level of spending is simply not sustainable. When people choose to be unhealthy by eating inordinate amounts of junk food and not exercising, they are adding to the financial drag on our economy and taking away the nation’s limited health care resources from those who are truly sick or injured.

This is why Congressman Mark Udall and I have tried to lead by example in founding and co-chairing the Congressional Fitness Caucus and co-sponsoring the Workforce Health Improvement (WHIP) Act, legislation that would encourage Americans to lead healthier lives.

The WHIP Act would allow more equitable tax treatment for the cost of fitness center memberships as a benefit for all employees, whether the exercise facility is in-house or located off-site.  It would also ensure that employers continue to have the right to deduct the cost of subsidizing or providing fitness center benefits for its employees.  This legislation would exclude the wellness benefit from being considered income for the employees, making employer contributions to the cost of fitness center fees exempt from the employee's income tax.

While the government can help to lower health care costs by providing financial incentives for people to stay healthy, we need to instill a culture of personal responsibility to combat this epidemic. Americans who are choosing to lead unhealthy lifestyles need to get off the couch and start to help pulling the wagon for those who no longer can. It’s only fair.