The high price tag for health care costs for morbidly obese adults
are weighing heavily on U.S. health care expenditures. Nearly doubling
the costs of health care over those considered to be of normal weight,
morbid obesity is quickly taking a substantial economic burden on
the American health care system.
A Study on the Medical Costs for the Morbidly
Obese Reveal Substantial Results:
- Medical expenditures for morbidly obese adults in the year 2000
were 81 percent more than for normal-weight adults
- 65 percent more than overweight adults
- 47 percent more than obese adults
Researchers attribute the excess health care costs among morbidly
obese adults to a number of factors including spending more money
on doctor visits, outpatient care, inpatient care and prescription
drugs. In addition there are many sicknesses and deaths from certain
chronic health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular
disease and cancer that are linked to morbid obesity.
A person is considered morbidly obese if they meet one of the two
requirements: They weigh 100 pounds over their ideal body weight
or they have a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or higher. The rate in
which morbidly obese people are bypassing those defined as solely
obese (BMI greater than 30) is reflected in the following statistics:
Between 1990 and 2000, the prevalence of morbid obesity increased
from 0.78 percent to 2.2 percent, representing a total of over 4.8
million morbidly obese U.S. adults in the year 2000.
Statistics also showed that in the year 2000 the number of adults
considered morbidly obese jumped to nearly 5 million sending the
US health care budget needed to treat those with excess body weight
to over $11 billion that year.
Doctors are concerned that the escalating number of morbidly obese
adults over the next decade will cause the total U.S. health-care
expenditures to climb as well.
The authors of the study concluded that in order to develop specific
intervention plans to reduce the growing number of morbidly obese
adults and work to improve their health and economic situation that
more research would need to be done.
Medical
News Today
February 15, 2005
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