MINNEAPOLIS, March 12, 2008—A House committee passed a bill Tuesday calling for public health initiatives as part of comprehensive health care reform but shelved a BMI tracking plan.

If passed, the bill, H.F. 3390, would develop a public health improvement program to reduce the percent of Minnesotans who are obese or overweight to less than half by the year 2020.

It would also focus on the reduction of tobacco use by 2 percent annually, starting in 2011. More than 50 community health boards would receive $50,000 grants to implement public health programs.

H.F. 3390 also calls upon schools to do more. It would require K-12 schools to serve healthier foods and engage students in at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day. 

However, the bill didn’t get out of the Housing Policy and Finance and Public Health Finance Division Committee unscathed.

The committee voted in favor of stripping out a plan for collecting Body Mass Index (BMI) data in K-12 schools to determine and track Minnesota’s childhood obesity rates.

Edward Ehlinger, M.D., director of the Boynton Health Service, represented the MMA and testified in favor of the bill’s public health initiatives, including the plan to collect BMI data.

Ehlinger said Minnesota lacks data about what percent of its children are overweight, and that lack of knowledge will hinder future prevention efforts.

“Without a scientifically established baseline in this state, we won’t be able to evaluate our efforts very well,” Ehlinger said.

But in the end, a majority of committee members voted against the BMI plan because they were concerned that the effort would burden schools and stigmatize and traumatize overweight children.

The committee referred the bill to the House K-12 Finance Division Committee.