By Vanessa Green Sinders, Indiana Chamber of Commerce President and CEO
The Indiana Chamber of Commerceis home to the Wellness Council of Indiana, whose mission is to improve Hoosiers’ quality of life by empowering employers and communities to create thriving places. Together, we are urging businesses and organizations to engage with their local health departments as a statewide push is underway to get Hoosiers healthier via Health First Indiana.
The initiative allows for coordination across the state to ensure communities and their residents will flourish. That’s vital for job attraction, expansion and retention efforts, as businesses need a healthy workforce to keep pace with competition and to grow their own talent pipelines.
For context, Health First Indiana, passed by the 2023 Indiana General Assembly, provides $225 million in funding over two years to county health departments to prioritize public health and safety. To launch the engagement part of the initiative, which includes our Health First Indiana Pledge Act for employers, we joined the Indiana Department of Health and the Indiana Hospital Association on Public Health Day at the Statehouse last winter.
Economy of health
The Indiana Chamber views the aspiration of having healthy and prosperous communities and citizens so vital that it’s one of the six pillars of our recently released long-term visioning plan for the state, Indiana Prosperity 2035 (IP35).
Indiana proudly has built one of the country’s most competitive business and economic climates. But we now must be willing to identify, discuss and act on difficult matters surrounding the health of Hoosiers in order for us to continue to prosper as citizens and as an economy.
One in five Hoosier adults still smoke and one in three is obese, ranking the state in the bottom fifth of states in these critical health metrics. Additionally, Indiana’s drug-related death rates are still too high.
The financial impact is secondary, but also staggering. Smoking addiction alone costs Indiana more than $2 billion a year in lost productivity and health care costs. And over half of Medicaid enrollees in Indiana suffer from smoking-related illness.
The cost in lives, lost futures and lost productivity should give us all pause.
Healthy opportunities
But we also have a tremendous opportunity in Indiana as we can make thoughtful, strategic improvements in health care and transform from one of the least healthy populations to a state clearly moving in the right direction. Health First Indiana is such an important piece to begin that change.
The Indiana Chamber will continue to beat the drum on the public policies that are embodied in this initiative.Earlier this year, for instance, we championed successful legislation to improve childcare and early learning, which are critical components of a young child’s health outcomes.
Looking ahead, two of our long-term goals from IP35 are to reduce smoking levels to less than 15% of the state’s population and the obesity levels to less than 20%.
Furthermore, raising the cigarette tax by $2 would help curb smoking. It would stop an estimated 24,500 youngsters from becoming adults who smoke or vape and help 50,000 adults quit smoking – and save nearly 20,000 lives. Such a tax is also projected to generate over $370 million in new revenue in the first year – money that can be go toward additional health care needs in the state.
Working together, we can get there.
Take the pledge
The Chamber and WCI also want to see opioid and other drug addictions reduced to a level that ranks Indiana best in the Midwest.
All told, we want the state to rise even higher on the list of best places for businesses to operate and for people to live, work and visit. To get there, we must get healthier and be willing to walk the talk.
Businesses can take the Health First Indiana pledge with us at www.indianachamber.com/healthfirst.
We are honored to partner with the state on this opportunity to improve Hoosier health and look forward to seeing progress in the years ahead.
