Opinion: Child health is the national security crisis we keep ignoring

Written by Tina L. Cheng, James M. Perrin, and Stanley McChrystal, the STAT News opinion piece argues that military readiness, workforce shortages, rising health care costs, affordability, and U.S. global competitiveness are usually treated as separate crises with separate solutions, but they share a root cause: the declining health and well-being of American children. The authors say this decline threatens future U.S. safety and security militarily, economically, and globally.

To support the military-readiness link, they cite a 2020 Department of Defense study finding that 77% of young Americans do not qualify for military service due to health concerns, and note that for the first time three military branches missed recruitment goals in fiscal year 2023. Recruitment has rebounded somewhat since then because of increased pay, pre-boot camp programs, and loosening requirements, but the authors argue the problem originates in the decade before a young person reaches enlistment age.

They point to a JAMA study published last year showing that children's health deteriorated alarmingly between 2007 and 2023 and that American children were 1.8 times more likely to die than children in other industrialized countries. They also state that four in 10 American kids will become adults hampered by obesity, chronic illness, anxiety, depression, or other conditions that can limit their opportunities and shorten their lives.

The authors trace the economic consequences from childhood health to school performance, workforce participation, and long-term productivity, arguing there is no path for the U.S. to remain strong if its children struggle to thrive. They note falling birth rates and slowing labor-force growth even as employers need more healthy, adaptable, and well-educated workers, and warn that preventable health problems, food insecurity, untreated mental health conditions, and barriers to learning become tomorrow's workforce shortages, rising health care costs, and lost economic potential.

Finally, they note the U.S. has been here before: in the 1960s, military leaders discovered that nearly one-third of young men were unfit for service.