The price of obesity
What a new study says about the cost of fighting illnesses linked to being overweight
Dangerous and expensive? (Corbis)
"Obesity's not just dangerous," said the Associated Press in MSNBC, "it's expensive." New research published in the journal Health Affairs shows that medical spending averages $1,400 more a year for an obese person than for someone who's normal weight. And "don't blame things like stomach-stapling for all those extra bills"—they go toward treating diabetes, heart disease, and other ailments far more common for overweight people.
"The detailed study piles up one troubling statistic after another," said Catherine Arnst in BusinessWeek. Medical spending on conditions linked to the obesity epidemic has nearly doubled in the last decade to $147 billion. That would put the bill at 9.1 percent of total medical spending, up from 6.5 percent in 1998. At a conference sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control to publicize the findings, former president Bill Clinton said, "We must all do more to develop innovative solutions to combat the obesity epidemic."
"Fat warriors" are pushing the fiscal argument to get people to slim down, said Jacob Sullum in Reason. But the sad truth, according to another study, is that eliminating obesity would actually increase spending on health care over a lifetime, "because obese people tend to die sooner than thin people do." So all this talk about the cost of obesity is just meant to distract attention from "the paternalism of the 'public health' agenda," which aims to discourage "sloth and gluttony" through any means possible.
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7 Comments
Posted by Bloomsday, Monday, July 27, 2009, 5:38 pm One thing about obesity: it will keep the pregnancy rate down, since obese people are less likely to be attractive enough to have children, thus helping to keep their medical bills down. Having a baby is expensive.
Posted by HSR0601, Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 6:00 am In case the health care reform provides the general public with peace of mind, the rising mental stress or illness caused by financial instability may bend the curve surprisingly, in combination with kicking out the 'keep eating habit' to forget the deepseated instability and apprehension, I guess.'Work or Break' health system with no brake or safety system might be one of the biggest hidden causes of mental stress, obesity or overweight threatening the overall economy, I cautiously suppose.
Posted by Dori P., Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 3:01 pm The solution is to make crappy, nutrientbankrupt foods expensive instead of subsidizing them. Get chemicals out of our food beauty products. Subsidize healthy foodsfresh, local, organic, sustainably grown, nutrientrich options. As long as fast food and soda are cheapest and packaged goods companies are not held to any health standard, people will buy what they can afford, get fat and be sick. Where are the lawyers who took down Philip Morris? Go after ADM, Kraft and Pepsihold them accountable for pushing food they know is harmful.
Posted by Dori P., Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 3:03 pm Note to posters: Ampersands, hyphens, dashes and the like to do not publish. Hence, my incoherent post above.
Posted by Tracie, Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 5:28 pm Has it occured to anyone that if everybody still smoked, we'd have less fat people? Smokers and fat people don't live to be 98 years old and require 30 years or more of multiple medications per day, decades of Alzheimers' nursing home care, hip knee replacements and every other proceedure known to man that can be done in the extra 30 or so more years nonsmokers and thin people live. We die. End of medical costs. Insurance companies the government should be encouraging us!
Posted by Andy S., Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 5:50 pm Ask the average American what are the greatest contributors to rising health care costs, and the majority will highlight the costs associated with smoking and obesity. Yet, here is another study showing these life shortening factors actually save more money than they cost due to the prolonged life span and health care costs associated with the illnesses of old age. The paradox is that success in being healthier will equate to greater long term costs, which is why getting COSTS under control, NOT simply who has insurance, is imperative.
Posted by Lisa M., Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 6:07 pm Using the alleged health care costs of smoking and obesity to set social and legislative agendas is, and has always been, illogical, unconscionable, and dishonest. A tactic that distorts reason and fact, in other words, a means justified by the end. We need to reduce smoking and we need to reduce the amount of obesity. Not to reduce health care costs. It won't. To improve the quality of life. But it's going to come with a cost. Let's start being honest about that and quit lying so we can persecute smokers and overweight people.
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