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The medical costs resulting from overweight and obesity in
America could be as high as $93 billion annually, with the
government paying about half the amount, according to a study.
The estimate, which includes direct medical costs only, not
indirect costs such as missed work, is even higher than the
annual medical bill for smoking, which a few years ago was
estimated at about $76 billion.
Close to 65 percent of Americans are either overweight or
obese, putting them at an increased risk of heart disease,
diabetes, cancer and other illnesses.
In the study, researchers compared medical costs for overweight
and obese people with the costs for people of normal weight.
Overweight is defined as being 10 to 30 pounds over a healthy
weight, while obesity is 30 or more pounds over.
Findings indicated that annual medical costs for an obese
person are about 37.7 percent more, or $732 higher, than the
costs for a person of normal weight.
Further, an obese person on Medicare costs $1,486 more a
year, and an obese person on Medicaid costs $864 more than
a person of healthy weight on the same program.
Each year, medical spending for overweight and obesity make
up about 9.1 percent of the nation’s medical costs. Comparatively,
spending attributable to smoking makes up from 6.5 percent
to 14.4 percent of costs.
There is ongoing controversy over whether obesity is an individual’s
responsibility or a problem for society. According to researchers,
since government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, as
well as taxpayers, are financing many of the medical costs,
obesity is increasingly becoming an issue for society.
Moreover, others point out that obesity is still on the rise
and if the problem isn’t addressed now, the government
will be faced with even higher medical costs for obesity in
the future.
Health
Affairs May 14, 2003
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