My 58 - KCRA News at 9am

updates@kcra.com or downlo the kcra 3 app to have those alerts sent right to your phone. in other news, california is rolling back coverage for certain coverage for certain weight loss medications under medi-cal. it's a move that's raising health advocates, and critics sayn could worsen existing health disparitiesll across the state. joining us now to break this all down is executive director of the calnia black health network. rhonda smith, thank you so much foroining us. thank you for having me today. so we know that california recently eliminated the medi-cal coverage for certain obesity medicawhy has that decision raised concern am some health advocates like yourself? yes.so we that we suffer unfortunately, the worst health outcomes and disparities across the state. we know that lack of access to important therapies like glp one to treat obesity, which is really more of a disease than a liyle or choice, can only make those health outcomes worse and exbate the situation and widen that gapn health disparities and life expect. so how widespread is a, b, c, d in california, are some communitieseriencing higher rates than others might see? yes. so we know in general, 1 in 4 californians, that's about 11 million people here in the state are dealing with and managing their their black community. we know that's about 4 in 10 amongst black women. it's 41% of them are dealing wi or trying to manage obesity. and some of the contributing factors like obesity as a disease, obviously, that's more biological than a choice or lifest but when we look at conditions underch people live in their communities, w there's lack of access to fresh, fresh, healthy produce or foods, and also lack of access to basic health care, medical deserts or food deserts, and lack of safe, clean and clear spaces to get physical activity or exercise. you know, all those things come into play, but that's just part of the equation. when we look at ity as a disease that contributes to poor outcomes or health outcomes folks in our community. yeah. as you just kind of touched on, there's a lot of layers to this. and obesity, we know, is often talked about as maybe being a lifestyle issue. but manyical experts say it's actually a chronic disease. why is that partir distinction so important? so i thin's important because sometimes people often labeled as the vic of their own choices and decisions. but that's not reay true. when we look at obesity as a disease.n, it's biological, which in those cases we can't control what we are dealing with from a health standpoint. so when we look other things like alcoholism, obesityan also be part of an addiction situation that an individual may be dealing with. and when we look at diabetes or hypesion, you know, those are also diseases or cic conditions that we treat with specific drugs. and so obesity i no different. again, there are o factors that may come into play. but obesity as a disease really needs to be treated with the proper therapies. all right. well realuick, we're almost out of time. where can folks go to learn more information? they can visit our web at w w w dot cbh org. that's y o u r c h n dot o r g.