SA third fattest nation on earth. Turning it around starts by cutting down on KFC…..
We'd better stop joking about fat Americans. The latest global survey shows South Africans are climbing the "fat nation" league and we're now in third place behind the US and UK. Hidden costs of obesity are similar to cigarette smoking – mushrooming public healthcare costs. That's not to be sneezed at in a country determined to introduce National Health Insurance over the next few years. In this interview, we look more deeply into the subject and ways to address it. – AH
GUGULETHU MFUPHI: National Health Director General Precious Matsoso has warned that the current rate of non-communicable diseases poses a threat to the government's planned National Health Insurance system. Posing further pressures, South Africa is now the third most obese country in the world. Nicholas Van Der Nest, Divisional Director of Risk Product Management from Liberty joins CNBC Africa for more. Nicholas, I wasn't aware that we were a fat nation – I thought we were just gifted in the right areas. When was this problem exacerbated?
NICHOLAS VAN DER NEST: The problem may have been there forever, we just never really talked about it. Certainly if you look back a couple of years South Africa has always been in the top ten of the fattest nation in the world. This study that has just come out looks at the body mass and mortality – the fatter you are the more chance that you suffer other health problems or that you even die from that.
ALEC HOGG: Has this had an impact on the rates that are being charged – and I'm not talking about individual South Africans but through the group schemes?
NICHOLAS VAN DER NEST: Yes, on the group schemes a large contributing factor is that people pay is the overall experience of the entire group. So if you start having a group that gets fatter and fatter, there would be more claims and over a period of time, you would definitely start changing more for the cover. The market changes that we are seeing are in the individual arena, where most insurers are starting to pull back on the rates they are charging to high BMI lives (Body Mass Index).
ALEC HOGG: I know that Discovery is your competitor, but they've done some fantastic work in this regard having linked lifestyle with rates they charge . Is this a trend that you see gathering further momentum?
NICHOLAS VAN DER NEST: Yes. There are obviously various programs in place through all of the insurers where they track lifestyle back to the premiums that they pay. With some companies, the intention is to make people healthier, and when you make people healthier you will obviously reap the benefits in that you will pay less claims, which then goes back into the person's premium and charges them less. So from Liberty's perspective, we've recently launched an online "Risk Revealer". It looks at your lifestyle and incidental risk. Quite often, its not just the obesity, it looks at the transport choices you make, it looks at your family structure, all of those together create a holistic picture rather than only look at BMI in isolation.
GUGULETHU MFUPHI: Nicholas, that works well for people who can afford to purchase medical aid, but more on the public's perspective, we know that there is a warning an obesity problem in South Africa will put pressure on the NHI. How can we combat that?
NICHOLAS VAN DER NEST: It has to start with us as a nation saying this really is a problem for us. One doesn't have to pay to go to a gym. Its just as easy to go for a jog on the Promenade. It's simple things like that reduce your risk factor which will obviously help the NHI.
ALEC HOGG: Kentucky Fried Chicken is not going to like that and if you are going to be banning cigarettes and alcohol – why not ban KFC if its such a big problem?
NICHOLAS VAN DER NEST: I think you've got to give people choice, and the Japanese government has taken strict steps. They actually fine employers that have employees who are over a certain BMI.
GUGULETHU MFUPHI: Isn't that a bit drastic?
ALEC HOGG: Sure. But did you see that series that Jamie Oliver did in America where he went into a fast food outlet and turned it around. He took out the fat and things that gets put into this food. He showed that there was a healthier option, which automatically starts cutting down on BMI. Those are the initiatives that we should be asking for here rather than banning KFC?
NICHOLAS VAN DER NEST: Yes absolutely. At the end of the day, initiatives like that have to be driven at a government level, but the question was asked – How can we as people do something about it? I really do think that it does start with yourself. Understanding that we can have KFC but maybe we need to have it twice a week instead of four times a week. So its small changes like that, that changes a nation in terms of our position being number three.
ALEC HOGG: I would have thought rather have Nando's
GUGULETHU MFUPHI: The healthier option Alec…
ALEC HOGG: A South African brand rather than the other one….
GUGULETHU MFUPHI: But just on opportunity here Alec –is there a business opportunity to put your money with the likes of Discovery?
NICHOLAS VAN DER NEST: I wouldn't say Discovery, there's Liberty … the reality here is that as insurers, it's in our interest to make our policyholders healthier. So we will do whatever it is that we need to do in order to facilitate that process. We also need to understand that we cannot actually force a person to become healthier.
GUGULETHU MFUPHI: Nicholas, thank you for your time today. That was Nicholas Van Der Nest, Divisional Director of Risk Product Management of Liberty.