A bill aimed to improve children’s health in Puerto Rico could end up fining parents up to $800 if their children are technically obese for reasons other than medical conditions.
Public hearings for the bill will start on Friday, and senator Gilberto Rodriguez said this could help parents make healthier choices, The Guardian reported.
How it would work is teachers at public schools would refer potential obesity cases to a counselor or social worker, and then health department officials would meet with the parents to determine the source of obesity.
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A diet-and-exercise program would be put in place along with monthly visits for six months and then officials would reevaluate the child.
If the child’s health doesn’t improve within another six months, the parents could be fined anywhere from $500 to $800.
Childhood obesity (having a body mass index or above the 95th percentile for children of the same age and sex) is an even bigger problem in Puerto Rico with 28 percent of children as opposed to 18 percent in the U.S. mainland.
This approach seems a little extreme, though, and it doesn’t go without criticism.
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The president of Puerto Rico’s chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and several other doctors have spoken out saying the measure is unfair.
We’ll see if the bill passes, but if a measure like this was proposed stateside, chances are there would be quite an uproar.
