Michael Pollan, “Big Food vs. Big Insurance,” The New York Times, September 10, 2009

“The American way of eating has become the elephant in the room in the debate over health care,” states Times writer Michael Pollan in this op-ed piece asserting that “our success in bringing health care costs under control ultimately depends on whether Washington can summon the political will to take and reform a second, even more powerful industry: the food industry.” Pollan predicts that requiring health insurers to “take everyone at the same rates, provide a standard level of coverage and keep people on their rolls regardless of their health” would signify a sea change in the relationship between insurance providers and the food industry. “When health insurers can no longer evade much of the cost of treating the collateral damage of the American diet, the movement to reform the food system – everything from farm policy to food marketing and school lunches – will acquire a powerful and wealthy ally,” Pollan surmises.

The article focuses on the likelihood that health care reform would prompt insurers to back a soda tax, school lunch programs, regional food systems, and other policies intended to improve the American diet and prevent chronic disease. “In the same way much of the health insurance industry threw its weight behind the campaign against smoking, we can expect it to support, and perhaps even help pay for, public education efforts like New York City’s bold new ad campaign against drinking soda,” notes Pollan, who anticipates that even the most basic health care bill would “force the industry, and the government, to take a good hard look at the elephant in the room and galvanize a movement to slim it down.”