Former Presidential candidate and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee spoke recently on the issues of obesity at an American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery reception. Huckabee opened his speech taking about the state of healthcare in this country. He claims the country is in a health crisis, citing obesity as an issue.

Huckabee went on to discuss JSAPA Weight Loss Surgery and the Lap Band procedure in particular. Huckabee’s own son had the Lap Band procedure. Because his son’s insurance didn’t pay for the procedure, Huckabee’s son had to borrow money from him. While Huckabee himself has not had obesity surgery, he does support it because it can save people from dying from obesity, not only in Arkansas or Jacksonville, Florida, but everywhere in the country. Losing weight through lifestyle modification alone, as Huckabee did, is a very difficult task for a lot of people and Lap Band surgery can be a great help.

During the reception, the Arkansas BMI report card was also discussed. Specifically, the report card detailed the BMI (body mass index) of every child in Arkansas. The BMI report card was mailed to every child’s parents confidentially. Along with the report card, the parents were advised to see their child’s pediatrician if their child was determined to have health risks based on their BMI. Huckabee indicated that the BMI report card has since been made optional since he left his Governor’s office; of which he is disappointed. Huckabee encouraged people to look at their own third grade class picture and compare it to any of today’s third grade class comparison, especially those that deny that there is a childhood obesity problem in American today.