The quick-service restaurant industry has been receiving a large share of the blame for the country's growing obesity epidemic. Recent studies have pointed out the impact of the segment's high-fat menus as well as advertising to children. Harvard Medical School researchers took a different approach in a recent study to learn what companies are investing in QSR stocks and were surprised to find that insurance companies were among those investors, according to Health.com.
The study found that as of June 2009, 11 large companies offering life, disability or health insurance owned about $1.9 billion in stock in the top five QSRs. The researchers suggest the insurers should either sell their stakes or use them to influence the industry to make QSR menus healthier. Outside experts say there are more effective strategies to encouarge QSRs to add more better-for-you offerings.
From the story:
But investing in unhealthy industries such as fast food and tobacco isn't necessarily a win-win for insurers over the long term, especially for health insurers, says Sara N. Bleich, Ph.D., an assistant professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore, Maryland."Health insurance companies get profits if they invest in tobacco and fast food, [but] these are some of the top drivers of mortality in the country," says Bleich, who researches obesity policy but was not involved in the current study....For her part, Bleich says that while health insurance companies, specifically, should be encouraged to divest their fast-food investments, encouraging self-regulation and competition in the fast-food industry may be a more effective way to make the industry healthier.
