LifeSmarts Rocks!

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Award-winning consumer reporter Herb Weisbaum has been the Question Master at the National LifeSmarts Championship for 25 years. We asked him to share his thoughts about the program.

LifeSmarts is the highlight of my year. Seriously!

Sure, it’s fun to travel to different cities and spend time with old friends. But that’s not why I keep coming back. It’s because LifeSmarts is an amazing program that makes learning fun. It teaches high school kids (and yes, I call them kids) “life lessons” that they may not learn at school or home.

For some of these kids, going to the national finals is the first time they’ve been on a plane or been outside their state. LifeSmarts gives them the opportunity to explore the host city, learn some history, and maybe try some local food specialties. The kids also get to spend time— and get to know—students with completely different backgrounds.

The national competition is often intense, with the winner being decided by just one or two questions. And yet, the kids are always gracious in defeat, rushing across the stage to congratulate the winning team. We could use more of that in this world! They’re also polite and curious.

For me, one of the joys of serving as Question Master is to see students who start the program as freshman and come back year after year. Even after they head to college, some of these kids volunteer to help at the national competition. It’s fun to see these LifeSmarts alumni, and talk to them about where they’re going to school and the career paths they’ve chosen. This desire to stay connected to LifeSmarts demonstrates the impact this program has on participants.

I can’t say enough wonderful things about the teachers and parents who coach their students all year long and take them to the finals. They truly love these kids and develop a special bond with them.

The LifeSmarts staff is also AWESOME! They work all year to make this a meaningful and successful program at the local level. At the National LifeSmarts Championship, they’re lots of fun—always smiling—and know how to relate to the kids.

The LifeSmarts finals are designed to provide various opportunities for the students to shine. Some kids just aren’t good with the game show buzzer format. The T-shirt contest and public service video message competition allow teams to compete on creativity. Individual scholarships are awarded to the winners of the annual essay contest and for those who have mentored groups in their community about the safe way to use over-the-counter medicines.

LifeSmarts has grown dramatically during the last 30 years. There are new activities, more prizes, more scholarship money, and significantly more students taking part across the country. In April, we had 47 teams at the 2024 National LifeSmarts Championship in San Diego—the most ever! While the students and coaches pay for their airfare and hotel rooms, LifeSmarts awards $35,000 in travel stipends to help defray some of those costs.

LifeSmarts has so much to offer. Hopefully, it can continue to grow. I’d like to see more schools (even home schools) and more clubs (such as 4-H) take part. I strongly encourage educators and sponsors to learn more and get involved.

Longtime Question Master, Herb Weisbaum, takes a selfie with LifeSmarts Students

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Herb Weisbaum is a Contributing Editor at Checkbook.org and hosts Checkbook’s “Consumerpedia” podcast. During his distinguished career, Herb covered the consumer beat for CBS News, NBC News, and the TODAY show. 

Making Consumers Smarter Through Financial Education

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Growing up, I had my own personal consumer advocate, my grandmother, Big Mama. She taught me to be a skeptical consumer and to watch out for the tricks and traps used to separate me from my hard-earned money.

Big Mama modeled the importance of saving and being a savvy shopper. She instilled in me the critical skills that I needed, which I have, in turn, passed on to readers of the personal finance column I’ve written for The Washington Post for nearly three decades.

However, not everyone has a Big Mama, and filling that role of protector has had to come down to organizations such as the National Consumers League (NCL). With the care and compassion of a loving grandmother or parent, NCL has developed many programs and educational tools to teach people to be smart consumers.

For example, NCL’s LifeSmarts program, which is aimed at teenagers, provides unbiased information to help them navigate an increasingly complicated and often financially treacherous world. All too often, people accumulate massive credit card debt or find themselves unable to manage their monthly expenses because they were never taught how to make smart financial decisions. NCL has filled that critical void.

As a consumer rights champion, NCL has been at the forefront of identifying and fighting the avalanche of sophisticated scams stealing billions of dollars from consumers. Fraud.org is an NCL project I’ve frequently relied on to inform readers of the latest scams and provide them with tips to protect themselves.

I couldn’t do what I do—inform the public— without the tireless efforts of NCL, which has been an ally for those who have been victimized, exploited, and treated unfairly.

The amount of false, inappropriate, and reckless personal finance information online makes it more difficult for consumers to know who to trust. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will make it harder for people to know the truth. This means that strong consumer advocacy is needed more than ever.

I celebrate and congratulate NCL for 125 years of being a Big Mama to the millions of people who need a champion. The financial well-being of so many people is infinitely better because of the work of NCL.

Team Pennsylvania from Dallas High School who won the 30th National LifeSmarts Championship in 2024

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Michelle Singletary has been a journalist and columnist for The Washington Post since 1992. She is the author of four books on personal finance and has won numerous awards for her work, including the Trumpeter Award in 2002. 

Leading the Fight Against Child Labor in the U.S. with the Care Act

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Growing up in rural, northern New Mexico on a small family farm, being around large pieces of heavy of equipment was normal. Every Luján kid was expected to help around the house, making sure the sheep’s barn was shoveled and clearing out our acequias every springtime. For many kids across America, this upbringing is not uncommon.

Back then, my siblings and I had our parents looking out for us, making sure we were learning the lessons daily farm life had to offer us, but also protecting us when things got too chaotic or unsafe.

Family farms are built on generations of family members leaning on one another. The saying, “Many hands make light work” would be the unofficial mantra of every successful small farm or ranch.

But I know there are hundreds of thousands of kids who do not have the same experience I did on my family farm.

Every day, children are illegally working in grueling jobs in meatpacking warehouses and auto-supply factories. Child labor violations have increased nearly 300% since 2015. And more enforcement is needed to crack down on these companies for hiring children.

In the agricultural sector, however, the law allows for very young children, even preteens, to work 70 or 80 hours a week in the fields.

I am proud the Naitonal Consumers League (NCL) is supporting my legislation, the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment in Agriculture (CARE Act). Current child labor laws in agriculture allow children who are only 12 to work unlimited hours so long as they are not missing school. Throughout this country, hundreds of thousands of kids are working in extremely challenging conditions, harvesting fruits and vegetables, impairing their education, and risking their health from pesticide poisoning and dangerous farm equipment.

My CARE Act would amend the existing Fair Labor Standards Act by aligning age and hour work standards for children working in agriculture with the standards we maintain for other industries. If a 12-year-old cannot work in an air-conditioned office—and they should no —they must not be permitted to work long hours in the field. CARE would raise the age for hazardous work in agriculture from 16 to 18 —the same as other sectors. In addition, CARE would significantly increase both the civil and criminal penalties for child labor violations to create a strong deterrent against exploiting children, and it would strengthen protections for children from pesticide and chemical exposure.

The CARE Act would maintain family farms, 4-H, educational, and vocational training exemptions so children can engage in activities that encourage them to pursue agricultural careers, and it would protect their ability to work on their own family farms. Nothing is more important than protecting the health and futures of our children. Children must be allowed to develop and to learn, but too many are performing backbreaking and often hazardous labor. Throughout its long, successful history, NCL has worked diligently to protect children from exploitation in the labor market. There are still gaps in these protections, though, and I am proud to be working with NCL in making sure we close them.

Children need NCL as much today as they ever have. And they need the advocacy of the Child Labor Coalition—more than 35 national and global organizations strong— that NCL founded.

It is my pleasure to congratulate the NCL and its dedicated leadership and staff on the organization’s 125th anniversary and I look forward to continuing to work with Sally Greenberg and her team in protecting the most vulnerable among us.

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U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján has represented New Mexico in the Senate since 2021 and, prior to that, was the U.S. Representative for New Mexico’s Third Congressional District since 2009.

The Campaign to End Forced and Child Marriage

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The National Consumers League (NCL) is recognized globally for its work protecting children from being exploited for their labor and from being forced to work in unsafe environments.

But NCL also deserves recognition for its crucial work on another child welfare issue that has not received the attention it warrants in the United States: child marriage.

Many people do not realize that child marriage, or marriage before age 18, remains legal in most of the United States, even though it is a particularly insidious form of forced marriage—and forced marriage is a form of modern slavery. Indeed, the entire world has agreed child marriage is a harmful practice and has promised to eliminate it by the year 2030 to help achieve gender equality.

More than 300,000 minors, some as young as age 10, have entered into marriage in the United States since the turn of the century, and most were girls wed to adult men, according to research by Unchained At Last.

I founded Unchained out of my own traumatic experience after I escaped from an abusive forced marriage that began when I was 19 and kept me trapped for 15 years. We at Unchained are committed to ending forced and child marriage in the United States through direct services and systems change: We provide crucial, often lifesaving services to people who are escaping the horror of forced marriage and rebuilding their lives, while we also push relentlessly for social, policy, and legal change.

NCL has been a resourceful, committed partner as we make that push. It has brought to this fight its reputation for social justice advocacy, earned over more than a century, as it has testified before state legislatures and used its communications resources to raise awareness. 

Together, we have seen stunning victories. Since 2018, we have convinced 13 U.S. states to ban child marriage, a human rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives and often gives a get-out-of-jail-free card to child rapists, since statutory rape within marriage is not considered a crime in most states.

We still have a lot of work to do. Child marriage remains legal in 37 states, and with alarming regularity, minors are being forced into marriage or forced to stay in marriages; due to their limited legal rights, they cannot easily take basic steps to seek safety, such as entering a domestic violence shelter or filing for divorce.

Working with NCL, we are urging lawmakers in the remaining 37 states to pass simple, commonsense legislation to make the marriage age 18, with no exceptions. Such legislation costs nothing and harms no one except child rapists.

The challenge before us is daunting, but I am optimistic. I look at what NCL has accomplished over its 125 years in advancing workplace safety, fair wages and work conditions, and access to healthcare, and I know that, with NCL as our ally, we will soon celebrate the end of child marriage in the U.S.

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Fraidy Reiss, Founder and Executive Director of Unchained At Last, is a forced marriage survivor turned activist and the 2023 recipient of NCL’s Florence Kelley Award.

Championing Worker’s Rights and Better Working Conditions

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As the National Consumers League (NCL) celebrates 125 years and the Fair Labor Association (FLA) celebrates 25 years, it’s a great time to reflect on how far both organizations have come and how our collaboration continues to promote better conditions for workers.

The organization I lead, FLA, owes its beginnings to the intense efforts by NCL, which worked with labor unions, university students, companies, universities, human rights organizations, and the U.S. government to reach an unprecedented agreement—the Apparel Industry Partnership—to address the problem of sweatshop labor in the United States and throughout the world.

Rapidly changing trade patterns meant that global supply chains were moving offshore to places where workers had few, if any, protections. NCL took on the co-chair role at the Apparel Industry Partnership and helped forge labor standards for global supply chains, including respect for freedom of association, a crackdown on child labor, a cap on employer-mandated overtime hours, and more. This agreement also mandated the creation of an association that would, among other things, “develop a reliable, independent means to provide for public confidence” that companies were abiding by these standards. In 1999, NCL was present for the creation of the FLA, and has been a staunch supporter of us from the beginning.

Image provided by the Fair Labor Association

It is no surprise that NCL was at the center of an effort to end sweatshop abuses. For the past 125 years, the League has been a driving force for improved working conditions. In fact, NCL’s original constitution declared that “goods should be produced and distributed at reasonable prices and in adequate quantity, but under fair, safe, and healthy working conditions that foster quality products for consumers and a decent standard of living for workers.”

I am very proud of the long-standing alliance between NCL and FLA. NCL CEO Sally Greenberg is a valued member of the FLA’s board of directors, and our two organizations continue to collaborate on many vitally important issues, including the ongoing battle against child labor in the United States and worldwide. The alignment of our missions and labor values allows us to multiply the impact of our respective organizations.

A great deal of work remains to be done to ensure that all workers can earn a living wage; have the right to bargain collectively for improved wages, benefits, and working conditions; are free from discriminatory practices in hiring and promotions; and have adequate family and medical leave policies that improve productivity and protect health and well-being.

We look forward to deepening our partnership with NCL on these and many other issues that support workers. Our partnership is an important catalyst for change, and we’ve only just begun.

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Jeff Vockrodt is President and CEO of the Fair Labor Association (FLA). 

One Fair Wage and NCL are Making Headlines!

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With the much-appreciated support of the National Consumers League, One Fair Wage is on the precipice of historic change. After years of organizing and building power with hundreds of thousands of restaurant and service workers, and ‘high road’ restaurant owners, to raise wages and end the subminimum wage for tipped workers (which is still $2.13 an hour), One Fair Wage has documented a massive upheaval in the restaurant industry that is driving change. More than 1 million workers have left the industry, and thousands of restaurants are raising wages to recruit staff.

To take advantage of this historic moment, One Fair Wage has launched the 25 by 250 campaign, which calls for raising wages and ending subminimum wages in 25 states by the United States’ 250th Anniversary in 2026. With recent victories in Washington, DC; Chicago; and Michigan, our campaign and ballot initiatives have become even more critical given recent polling showing that the top issue for young people, people of color, and other unlikely voters in 2024 is “the rising cost of living” and “jobs with living wages.”

With nearly 14 million workers, the restaurant industry has been one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors of the U.S. economy, but it has also been one of the lowest-paying for generations. A legacy of slavery, the subminimum wage for tipped workers, was always a source of poverty, racial inequity, and sexual harassment for millions of service workers nationwide as well as a source of liability for restaurant owners. Data showed that tipped restaurant workers of color earned at least $5 an hour less than their white counterparts due to segregation into lower- tipping establishments and implicit bias in tipping from customers.

Meanwhile, seven states have always required a full minimum wage with tips on top—AK, CA, MN, MT, NV, OR, and WA. These states have the same or higher restaurant sales, small business growth rates, menu prices, overall industry job growth rates, and tipping averages as the states with a subminimum wage for tipped workers. Workers in these seven states report that providing them with a full minimum wage and reducing their complete dependence on tips also reduces sexual harassment and racial inequities as a result, as dependence on tips makes workers vulnerable to harassment and bias from customers.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this crisis. We uplifted the voices and data from thousands of service workers who reported reduced tips and increased customer hostility and harassment and then left the industry in a mass exodus. To date, we have documented that 1.2 million workers have left the restaurant industry. With support from the Gates Foundation, we documented the huge industry shift following that exodus, in which thousands of restaurants voluntarily transitioned to paying a full minimum wage for tipped workers during the pandemic in order to recruit staff.

This upheaval has led us to the precipice of policy change, in which there is great momentum for One Fair Wage in multiple states. With the support of the NCL, we won One Fair Wage and a 300% wage increase for service workers on the ballot with a 75% margin in Washington, DC, on November 8, 2022. We also won a 50% wage increase for 100,000 service workers in the city of Chicago with a 36 to 10 vote. In July 2024, Michigan became the first state in 40 years and the first state east of the Mississippi to end the subminimum wage for tipped workers. This historic move is a result of the momentum gained following the pandemic when the racial inequities of the subminimum wage were exposed and exacerbated.

We expect many more states to follow, and have already completed signature collection to put One Fair Wage on the ballot in Massachusetts, and are moving One Fair Wage as policy in Baltimore, MD. We are also advancing bills and ballot measures in CO, NJ, NY, and OH and many more states in 2025 and 2026.

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Saru Jayaraman is President of One Fair Wage and Director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

Leveling the Playing Field: Advocating for Fair and Competitive Markets

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When the marketplace works as it should, it’s a wonderful thing for consumers. Free and fair competition generates value in the form of higher quality and affordable pricing. Consumers have the power of their pocketbooks to reward those companies that offer a square deal and force others to do better. It’s a system that works most of the time.

But sometimes markets run astray of these fundamental principles. They need a nudge, or something a little more forceful, to get back on track. This is where the National Consumers League (NCL) has been so valuable for so long, sounding the alarm when corporate malefactors distort our markets, and keeping the pressure on until solutions are put in place.

After having had the privilege of chairing the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), becoming affiliated with NCL seemed a natural step because of the similarities of the two organizations’ missions. The FTC is all about keeping the marketplace free of distortions such as monopolization and deceptive advertising that put consumers at an unfair disadvantage. And this is what NCL has been doing throughout its century-plus history, insisting upon corporate accountability, the preservation of competitive marketplaces, and strong and sensible regulations to protect consumers.

In recent years, we’ve seen NCL’s influential voice and determined actions come into play where they are needed most. For example:

● NCL has been a leading force in protecting consumers who buy tickets for live events, shining a spotlight on Live Nation- Ticketmaster’s monopolization of the marketplace and the excessive costs that lack of competition is imposing upon ticket buyers. NCL has been on the front lines of this fight, encouraging both legislation and antitrust action by the federal government.

● Lack of competition in the healthcare industry has been a long-standing problem and one that NCL continues to address. Not only have persistent hospital consolidations led to higher costs for patients, but the control of the prescription drug marketplace by three giant pharmacy benefit managers is pushing consumers to buy higher-priced medicines and denying them access to cheaper generics and biosimilars. NCL was a critical player in encouraging the FTC to open an investigation into pharmacy benefit managers practices.

● When this nation experienced an infant formula crisis from both contamination and shortage, NCL persistently cited the fact that only three manufacturers control 98% of the market—and that this problem could occur again if we don’t incentivize more companies to compete.

● And it was NCL that raised the alarm that more than 90% of the nation’s largest airports are dominated by just one or two airlines, leading Americans to pay higher travel costs than consumers in other countries. Also, NCL is out front urging the Department of Transportation to force airlines to be clearer and less deceptive about their add-on fees so that consumers can make apples-to-apples price comparisons.

These are just a few examples of the essential work that NCL is performing to complement the efforts of the FTC and other federal and state agencies and, in many cases, to draw the regulators’ attention to anticompetitive situations that warrant action.

As I mentioned in my board chair letter at the beginning of this book, NCL has done this with a staff and resources immensely smaller than the industries it’s working to hold accountable. NCL punches far above its weight. Impressive seems like an understatement in describing not only the great work NCL is doing on behalf of Americans today, but also the great work it has been doing over the past 125 years. NCL is truly a vigilant guardian, never leaving its post in making sure that marketplaces work as they should for generations of consumers.

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Jon Leibowitz is former Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and President of the National Consumers League Board of Directors. 

Promoting Secure and Accessible Telecommunications

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Most people know that Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1874. However, it was not until the 1899 invention of the induction coil that staticfree signals across long telephone lines became practical. This landmark invention made transcontinental communication connectivity possible. It is a fortuitous coincidence that 1899 also saw the birth of the National Consumers League (NCL) and the start of a long, successful history advocating for universal, affordable consumer access to communications technologies.

My admiration and respect for NCL’s long-standing work championing the interests of consumers is both personal and professional. In 2020, I was greatly honored to be named a recipient of the Trumpeter Award. As Chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), I can attest to the role NCL has played and continues to play in strengthening the FCC’s efforts to enhance access to telecommunications services and protect consumers from the misuse of those technologies. In fact, when we relaunched the Consumer Advisory Committee at the FCC earlier this year, I was very pleased to appoint NCL’s John Breyault as one of the committee’s co-chairs.

As we look at those two overarching priorities for our future—accessibility and consumer protection—NCL’s advocacy and insights will continue to be critical.

With every new innovation—telephones, radio, television, wireless devices, the Internet, and now Artificial Intelligence (AI)—NCL’s voice has been there, fighting to ensure that these technologies and the enhanced link to information they bring were accessible and affordable for everyone.

I have often said that the future belongs to the connected. Including every person in the digital future is not only the right thing to do, but it will also strengthen our economy, elevate our educational systems, and enrich our civic life. NCL will continue to have a vital role in making that happen.

Greater access must, of course, be paired with ever-stronger consumer protections. Here, too, the FCC and NCL have had a productive relationship. About a decade ago, 20 million people a year were victimized by a practice known as “cramming,” which occurred when dishonest companies put unauthorized charges on their phone bills. The FCC and NCL worked together to put an end to that scam.

Today, with rapid advances in AI, bad actors are using AI to prey on vulnerable populations with unwanted and even illegal phone solicitations. The FCC, in partnership with allies like NCL, must be at the forefront of learning how AI can be used for both beneficial and malicious purposes and then taking steps to protect consumers from new and evolving types of fraud.

I want to congratulate the NCL on its 125th anniversary. I feel fortunate to be working hand in hand with Sally Greenberg and her superb team to ensure that the future of telecommunications and connectivity means greater opportunity and promise for all.

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Jessica Rosenworcel is Chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Guardians of Consumer Confidence: Combating Fraud and Identity Theft

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Since its founding in 1899, the National Consumers League (NCL) has fiercely protected vulnerable citizens against predatory financial and other activity. NCL has consistently placed itself on the front lines of defense and has done so effectively.

In today’s digitized and interconnected world, that level of protection is more essential than ever. Consumers are facing clever, stealthy, and constantly evolving scammers and charlatans seeking access to the personal and financial data of consumers, stealing their identities, and swindling them out of money. As my organization knows all too well, they thoroughly disrupt lives in the process. Data breaches are at an all-time high, and reports of identity fraud have soared over the past two years.

That’s why it’s so important that there are organizations working to help victims of these crimes and enable consumers to be better informed and educated so they can better protect themselves. My organization, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), is very proud to work in partnership with NCL to provide no-cost assistance, support, counseling, and education to those who are targeted by identity thieves and scammers. 

NCL’s Fraud.org website is one of the most valuable and effective tools for consumers. NCL offers victims of scams the opportunity to describe the fraud; NCL then maintains a database and shares data—not names or personal information—with law enforcement agencies throughout the United States and Canada. Fraud.org also provides practical, constantly updated information on how people can protect themselves from bad actors. We were so impressed with the Fraud. org website that in 2022, ITRC integrated its live-chat function on Fraud.org, providing victims with easy access to ITRC’s identity fraud experts and offering a resource to consumers and small businesses on how they can better protect themselves from identity criminals. This alliance delivered immediate dividends, providing victims with yet another communications option to get in touch with a knowledgeable advocate.

I’ve also had the privilege of participating in NCL’s LifeSmarts program, which helps prepare sixth graders through high school seniors to become educated and empowered consumers. LifeSmarts provides an invaluable service by introducing these young people to the threats posed by data breaches, identity theft, and consumer fraud. Young people spend so much of their lives online these days, and it is vital that they understand how to be savvy and aware of online threats when engaging on websites and social media. Laying this educational groundwork at an early age will help us create a new generation of less vulnerable consumers.

I look forward to our continued partnership with NCL. Those who are victims of scams and identity fraud are often led to believe they were at fault somehow. They aren’t. Fraud is a crime that can happen to anyone. Any of us can be targeted at any time by scammers. As has been the case for 125 years, we know that NCL will be on our side.

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Eva Velasquez is President and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC).

Fighting for Fairness: The Obesity Bill of Rights

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In terms of the number of people it affects and the serious health problems it creates, obesity is the most significant chronic disease in human history. And yet, it is a disease that is too frequently undiagnosed and untreated, and leads to harsh judgments rather than understanding and care.

As a physician who has devoted my career to addressing the disparities affecting obesity sufferers, I am grateful for the work of the National Consumers League (NCL) in communicating the message that people who have this disease matter and that they have the right to quality healthcare without enduring discrimination or bias.

This argument can’t be made strongly enough. Obesity is a disease that people wear. You can’t look at someone and tell if they have cancer, high blood pressure, or diabetes. Often, you can look at someone and determine that they have obesity, and that leads to negative assumptions about their lifestyle instead of an acknowledgment that they have a chronic disease requiring treatment.

NCL and the National Council on Aging demonstrated essential and invaluable leadership by creating the first-ever Obesity Bill of Rights, defining the core requirements for people with obesity to receive person- centered, quality care. They established, for example, the right to respect from all members of an integrated care team, the right to treatment from qualified health providers, the right to receive care in settings that allow for privacy and the use of size– and weight– accessible equipment and diagnostic scans, and the right to coverage for treatment with access to the full range of treatment options for the patient’s disease.

These organizations put muscle behind their message by creating the Right2ObesityCare, a grassroots movement focused on ensuring that these rights are incorporated into medical practice.

As NCL CEO Sally Greenberg said very well when the Obesity Bill of Rights was announced, “For too long, adults with obesity have encountered a healthcare system that is working against them. They have been stigmatized, discriminated against, not treated with respect by their health providers, and have faced significant hurdles and burdensome requirements to receive obesity care.”

This commitment to health equity remains critical at a time in which 1 billion people worldwide and more than 100 million in the United States are living with obesity. This is a disease for which, too frequently, the economic haves and have-nots in our society have significant differences in care and coverage. There are novel therapies— GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic and Trulicity, for example—that can improve blood sugar control and lead to weight loss. Those in the higher socioeconomic strata have generous health insurance plans that cover these drugs. In contrast, those who struggle financially don’t have access even though they tend to have higher obesity rates.

If we’re to address a disease of this extraordinary magnitude, then these inequities must be addressed.

This is, in fact, a disease so far-reaching that it can’t be solved by just one breakthrough therapy or one effective medicine. This will require a multifaceted approach involving virtually every sector of our society and multiple industries. Most of all, it will take vision and leadership to keep making the point that obesity patients matter and that they require care, not judgment.

NCL is providing that voice, and its actions will continue to be critical in combating this ongoing healthcare crisis.

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Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford is an obesity medicine physician, scientist, educator, and policymaker at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She is a sought-after expert in obesity medicine, who bridges the intersection of medicine, public health, policy, and disparities