Australia's government is considering a plan to subsidize weight-loss programs in a bid to curb Australians' worsening obesity, a newspaper reported yesterday.
The government would use its health budget to pay 85 percent of the cost of an approved 12-week weight-loss program prescribed for an overweight patient by a doctor, the Age newspaper said.
Limited aid
Direct government assistance would be capped at A$200 (US$155) a year.
The average cost of a 12-week weight-loss program in Australia is A$195, the newspaper said.
Australia is one of the fattest nations in the world, with obesity costing an estimated A$1.5 billion (US$1.2 billion) a year to treat the diseases it causes, such as diabetes, stroke, heart disease and some cancers.
The plan is supported by the nation's largest doctors' lobby group, the Australian Medical Association, the newspaper reported.
Leading the push is Melbourne's Monash University nutritionist Mark Wahlqvist, president of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences and chairman of the World Health Organization's working party on dietary guidelines.
"We are having to deal with a major emerging health problem that is obesity and a partnership with the private weight-loss sector is going to be increasingly important in tackling it," Wahlqvist told the Age.
Industry cooperation
Wahlqvist, who is also the chairman of Australia's Weight Code Administration Council -- whose members include Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and Trim-A-Weigh -- told the newspaper that the industry was mature enough to become a partner with the government in fighting obesity.
The government estimated that the plan would cost about A$50 million a year.
But the total cost to the health system would be only A$27 million a year due to savings from the population's improved health, the newspaper said.
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