Although there are many questions Americans ask themselves on a daily basis, one seems to afflict more than others: “How do I stay fit?” More and more Americans—particularly our youth—are finding themselves in worse health straits without the means to improve their quality of life. With the rising costs of pay-to-play, gym and sport league registration fees, and travel expenses, children and parents are being priced out of healthy opportunities.
I had the chance to speak with Bill Sells, Vice President of Government and Public Affairs with the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA). The SFIA, which is a trade association of industry sports and fitness brands, is currently working with PHIT America and Congress on passing The Personal Health Investment Today Act (PHIT). The PHIT Act would allow Americans to use pre-tax medical accounts to help cut down on physical activity expenses such as pay-to-play fees, sports camps, and gym memberships.
You can learn more about the PHIT Act by going to the PHIT America webpage or following them on Twitter.
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Why is now the time to focus on the cost of being physically active?
Bill Sells: It’s well-documented that America has become a much more sedentary society. But when you dig a little deeper and look at the causes of sedentary lifestyles you find that there are many different factors that contribute to it. Two of the factors that people identify with regularly are time and money. Time is more of a concern for people trying to plan their activities and making the commitment. We cannot force people to go to the gym, so there’s very little that can be done with that.
The other factor is money. Growing up I would play sports with friends, kick the can, or capture the flag. We would always be doing some activity and it would not cost us a dime. If you look around today you don’t see casual play anymore. You see kids that are active, but they are active on an organized team or they are taking a ballet class. So where in previous generations the activity was free, now parents have to make an investment. We are at a point in time now where if your daughter makes the soccer team in high school you have to pay registration fees for her to play.
Adults are more invested in gyms and fitness classes. People have the chance to plan fitness into their day but there is a price tag that comes with it. With the PHIT Act what we are trying to say is, ‘let us help you with that cost.’
So do you believe that families are being priced out of being physically fit?
BS: Oh there are studies that show that. There was a study in which parents were asked ‘Why aren’t your children active?’ One of the most common answers was cost. When it comes to kids activity levels, I do believe that cost has become a barrier.
When you think about our healthcare system and the way it is set up now, young college graduates have to purchase healthcare. A young adult is typically pretty healthy so they are not going to purchase a high-end plan. They are going to get the least expensive healthcare plan that they can because they really don’t need a lot of healthcare. Those inexpensive plans are high-deductible health plans that come with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), which are pre-tax and can be used to help pay for medical expenses. What we are trying to say with the PHIT Act is rather than just using that money to pay for your medical expenses, use it to stay healthy. You can use that money to prevent disease on the front end rather than using it to pay for treatment and disease on the back-end.
Let’s change the dynamic on how we look at healthcare, not simply as a means to treat disease, but also to prevent it. These accounts are not something that a young person would use to treat disease because they are healthy. However, they would use it to pay their gym membership.
Healthcare has been an incredibly divisive topic in recent years. Yet your bill has attracted two of the most prominent Democratic and Republican members of the House of Representatives (Charles Kind of Wisconsin and Charles Boustany of Louisiana, respectively). Why is this bill attracting bipartisan support in a time where that is not always a given?
BS: I think the reason why the bill is bipartisan is that we are trying to do something that people believe in. We are not forcing anyone to do anything. All we are saying is that this money is already available so let’s not just limit it to treatment. Let’s give the consumer the option of using that same money to stay healthy. I think it’s hard to argue against that.
When a single mom is raising two kids, working a full-time job, and each of her kids want to join a soccer team, for her to pay $100 in fees is a real sacrifice. But if you can make that fee drop that is more financially manageable.
That’s why we have to work with both sides because no matter which way you look at it, HSAs are going to be a part of future healthcare plan. Whether we continue to operate under our current plan or if the Republicans come up with a different one, HSAs are going to be a part of it so let’s make them work better.
The recent presidential and congressional elections have altered the political landscape in the United States. What do these changes mean for your efforts in getting the PHIT Act passed into law?
BS: Obviously things have changed in some ways. But I think even the Democrats, had they won, would have realized that there needed to be some tweaks to the Affordable Care Act. So there were going to be some opportunities for the PHIT Act regardless of who was in charge. But I will say that there will probably be more opportunities to pass the PHIT Act under the Trump Administration than there would have been in a Clinton Administration just because he ran on the ticket of doing healthcare differently. It may be more of a priority for him than it would have been for Secretary Clinton.
What has been the reaction from the fitness industry to PHIT? How difficult was it to get competitors like Adidas and Under Armour to work together on this legislation?
BS: The fitness industry has been a partner with us on the PHIT Act from the beginning. They, like us, believe in the benefits of physical activity. It is the foundation of their industry. So it was not hard to get them on board.
As far as our members there was really no challenge at all to get them to come together on this. Our members are all in the business of getting people to have healthy, active lifestyles because they believe it is an important value in our society. So getting them together to promote a policy that is going to encourage increased activity and improved health in America was not hard at all.
How important has social media been in helping spread your message?
Social media is a tool that we have not used much up until now and we are very excited about spreading the word and raising awareness about the PHIT Act. Whenever I talk to someone about the PHIT Act I tell them what it is and how it works. Their response isn’t, “Really?” Instead they want to know how to sign up and when is it going to go into effect. So we need to get more people aware of it and social media plays a very large role in that process.
Your website lists recreational sports becoming too serious as one of the root causes for the inactivity pandemic. Is it a matter of parents taking sports too seriously and burning out their children? Or are there other factors that need to be considered?
BS: I think you do have parents who are a bit overzealous and over enthusiastic when it comes to their kids in sports. I have three boys; one is playing lacrosse in college, another might play golf in college. I never pushed them to do sports, they chose that. But there are parents that want their children to be good at sports and push them to be on travel teams and play too much and that is a problem. One, it limits a child’s exposure to other activities. But it can also lead to burnout and they can lose their passion for the sport.
I think parents can be the issue at times but society also plays a role in it. We have developed a society where everyone wants to be a star and there are coaches that will push players to only play one sport. I think the best case scenario is where the child gets to choose what they want to play.
