WHEREAS, Obesity is recognized as a national epidemic, and each state must seek out all necessary means to fight it; and

WHEREAS, More than one-third of adults in the United States (34.9 percent), or approximately 111 million Americans, have obesity; and

WHEREAS, In California, nearly 60 percent of adults are overweight or have obesity and one in four have obesity; and

WHEREAS, Minorities in California are disproportionately affected by obesity, with approximately 34.7 percent of African Americans and 31.7 percent of Latinos considered as having obesity; and

WHEREAS, Those without economic means are disproportionately affected by obesity; 33 percent of those with incomes of $15,000 per year or less have obesity, compared with 24.6 percent of those who make at least $50,000 per year, while 33 percent of those not graduating high school have obesity, compared with 21.5 percent of those who graduated college or technical college; and

WHEREAS, Obesity has been linked to many comorbidities and chronic diseases, with the six most common and most costly being type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke, arthritis, and certain types of cancer; and

WHEREAS, Obesity is one of the largest drivers of health care costs, with estimates ranging from $147 billion to $210 billion in annual medically related costs as of 2012; and

WHEREAS, The State of California paid approximately $1.3 billion in obesity-related costs in Medi-Cal in 2013, and annual costs of severe obesity amounted to $9.1 billion in overall health care costs in 2013; and

WHEREAS, The estimated medically related costs of adult obesity are expected to rise to $620 billion annually by 2030; and

WHEREAS, Obesity-related job absenteeism costs employers in the United States at least $4.3 billion annually, taking a toll on the economy; and

WHEREAS, Almost every state that demonstrates a 5-percent decrease in average body mass index will experience an approximate 6.5-percent to 7.9-percent reduction in overall health care costs over the next 5 to 10 years; and

WHEREAS, The American Medical Association (AMA) has now recognized obesity as a chronic disease requiring a range of medical interventions to advance obesity treatment and prevention, and health professionals from a large and growing number of other professional medical societies have signaled their support for the AMA’s decision to recognize obesity as a disease; and

WHEREAS, Significant innovations in treatment and medical interventions, including, among others, pharmacotherapy, have been approved for the medical community in recent years; now, therefore, be it