Health care in the US is projected to reach 20 percent by 2017 and that's the urgency. Health costs are rising faster than inflation. In 2008, total national health expenditures rose 6.9 percent -- two times the rate of inflation. And yet all the GOP can harp on is a fear of government.

Governor Romney did address his much-touted Massachusetts health plan.

On health care, Romney pointed to the successes of his own plan but criticized Obama's for its emphasis on a public option.

"The president's plan makes an enormous error by saying we're going to put government into the insurance business. We got everyone in Massachusetts insured and we did it without putting government into the insurance business," he said. "We said instead we're going to help people get private free enterprise kind of insurance they can buy from a number of different companies."

He said the system led to plunging premiums while offering a healthy choice of options for consumers.

"It's working well. We got 440,000 more people insured than when the plan was put in place, it costs less than 2 percent of the state budget -- it's a plan that's working, it's a good model," he said.

Although the Romney plan in Massachusetts did reduce the number of the uninsured, 200,000 people remain uninsured. National surveys show that the primary reason people are uninsured is the high cost of health insurance coverage. This is where a government option and subsidy can make a difference.

In the long-term, addressing the nation's health costs will require addressing the American diet (ending the corn subsidy would be a start) and tackling poverty. The annual report on obesity released today by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation once again painted a grim picture of the nation's waistline and health.

"This report reaffirms that obesity is a danger both abundantly clear and almost universally present," said Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Yale University School of Medicine Prevention Research Center, who was not involved in the report. "It truly is a public health crisis of the first order, driving many of the trends in chronic disease, in particular the ever-rising rates of diabetes."

For the fifth year in a row, Mississippi topped the list as the state with the highest rate of adult obesity, at 32.5 percent, according to the report, F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America 2009.

Besides Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee have obesity rates above 30 percent. Eight of the 10 states with the highest number of obese adults are in the South. The state with the lowest adult obesity rate is Colorado, at 18.9 percent, according to the report.

In 31 states, obesity rates exceed 25 percent, and in 49 states and Washington, D.C., the rates are above 20 percent.

Overall, two-thirds of American adults are now obese or overweight, according to the report.

As recently as 1991, no state had an adult obesity rate higher than 20 percent; in 1980 just 15 percent of adults were obese, the report noted.

And childhood obesity continues to be a growing concern, with the rate of childhood obesity more than tripling since 1980.

Mississippi also had the dubious distinction of posting the highest rate of obesity in children ages 10 to 17, at 44.4 percent. Minnesota and Utah had the lowest rates, both at 23.1 percent. The South is home to eight of the 10 states with the highest rates of obese or overweight children.

The current economic crisis could make the obesity epidemic worse, with food costs -- especially for nutritious foods -- expected to rise. And the numbers of Americans struggling with depression, anxiety and stress, which can contribute to obesity, are increasing, the report said.

One wonders at times if the GOP is even remotely aware of the connection between obesity and our failing health care system.