OT...Obesity Healthcare Costs US 147 Billion | Arthritis Information

 

The annual healthcare cost of obesity in the US has doubled in less than a decade and may be as high as 147 billion dollars a year says new government-sponsored research.

The study was conducted by researchers at RTI International, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and is published in the 27 July issue of the health policy journal Health Affairs.

For the study, which was funded by the CDC Foundation, lead author Dr Eric Finkelstein, director of RTI's Public Health Economics Program, and colleagues analyzed data from the 1998 and 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys.

They found that:

• In 1998 the medical costs of obesity in the US were estimated at around 78.5 billion dollars a year, half of which was financed by Medicare and Medicaid (government health insurance for seniors and families on low incomes).
  
• Between 1998 and 2006, the prevalence of obesity in the US went up by 37 per cent.
  
• This rise in obesity prevalence added 40 billion dollars to the annual healthcare bill for obesity.
  
• The annual healthcare costs of obesity could be as high as 147 billion dollars for 2008.
  
• Obesity is now responsible for 9.1 per cent of annual medical costs compared with 6.5 per cent in 1998.
  
• The medical costs for an obese person are 42 per cent higher than for a person of normal weight.
  
• This equates to an additional 1,429 dollars per year: the costs for an obese person on Medicare are even greater.
  
• Much of the additional Medicare cost for an obese person are the result of the added prescription drug benefit.
  
• Medicare prescription drug payments for obese recipients are about 600 dollars a year more than for normal weight recipients.
  
• Obesity accounts for 8.5 per cet of Medicare expenditure, 11.8 per cent of Medicaid expenditure, and 12.9 per cent of private insurance expenditure.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/158948.phpI was listening to a radio show last week and they were talking about obesity and the costs of obesity and they were discussing whether to take legal action against parents of overweight children and even taking the children away from the parents. Gosh, this United States is losing sight of what the founding priciples are. Everyone is playing god and ruler in how everyone should have to live. I agree with you Lev.  There was an excerpt from a forthcoming book in the NYT, I Was a Baby Bulimicthat while not directly related to the cost of obesity, might/maybe/perhaps be a conjunct to dialogue about an obsession with both food and physical form...or not.

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