Overweight
America Costs $93 Billion/yr
American government pays about half of that amount,
a federally funded study shows.
This
is the highest estimate yet of the medical costs
of overweight and obesity. It's comparable to
the annual medical bill for smoking, which was
estimated at about $76 billion a few years ago.
The new study by three economists, funded by the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
includes direct medical costs but not indirect
costs such as time off work.
Almost 65% of people in the USA are either overweight
or obese. Overweight is defined as roughly 10
to 30 pounds over a healthy weight; obesity is
30 or more pounds over. People who weigh too much
are at an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes,
many types of cancers and other illnesses.
The researchers used existing data to compare
medical costs for overweight and obese people
with the costs for people of normal weight. Their
findings, in last week’s online issue of
Health Affairs:
· Overall, annual medical costs for an
obese person are about 37.7% more, or $732 higher,
than the costs for someone of normal weight.
· An obese recipient of Medicare (a program
for the elderly) costs $1,486 more a year than
one of healthy weight.
· An obese patient on Medicaid (a program
for the needy) costs $864 more than a normal weight
Medicaid recipient.
The annual medical spending attributable to overweight
and obesity is about 9.1% of national medical
costs. Those attributable to smoking range from
6.5% and 14.4%.
"There is an ongoing debate about whether
obesity is an individual or societal issue,"
says the study's lead author, Eric Finkelstein,
a health economist for RTI International in Research
Triangle Park, N.C.
"The
fact that Medicaid and Medicare, and ultimately
taxpayers, are financing half the cost lends credence
to the notion that obesity is not solely a personal
issue."
Others say this study is a wakeup call. "The
government is going to get slam-dunked in future
obesity costs if it doesn't address the problem
now," says Anne Wolf of the University of
Virginia Medical School. She has studied the economics
of obesity. "As the population ages and the
prevalence of obesity continues to rise, Medicare
is going to be picking up the health care tab
for these people."
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DID YOU KNOW:
. People with diabetes can have a heart attack
without even realizing it.
Strokes occur twice as often in people with diabetes
and high blood pressure as in
those with high blood pressure alone. IDF “Time
To Act”
