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Obesity
Carries Huge Financial Weight
Obesity cost the United States about
$75 billion in 2003, and taxpayers footed about half the bill
through Medicare and Medicaid programs.
"If you look at the costs of obesity
that are financed by Medicare and Medicaid and divide them by
the number of taxpayers, you're looking at essentially a tax of
$150 to $200 per year just to pay for obesity among individuals,"
says Eric Finkelstein, lead author of a study appearing in the
latest issue of Obesity Research.
Researchers at RTI International
and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say their
study is the first state-by-state estimate of obesity-attributable
medical costs.
The dramatic rise in obesity in
this country and its health consequences are already well documented.
According to the CDC's 1999-2000 National Health and Nutrition
Examination Survey, almost two-thirds (64 percent) of American
adults are either overweight (33 percent) or obese (31 percent).
Obesity contributes to a number of chronic medical conditions,
including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, various types
of cancer and osteoarthritis.
"Obesity itself is not a reimbursable
diagnosis," says Cathy Nonas, director of diabetes and obesity
programs at North General Hospital in New York City and author
of the book Outwit Your Weight. Yet lifestyle changes,
including physical activity and a low-fat diet, have been shown
to be successful in preventing people at high risk for diabetes
from becoming diabetic. "If we don't get with it to prevent obesity,
it's going to cost us much more," Nonas adds.
Previous studies have estimated
that obese adults have 36 percent higher average annual medical
expenditures than do normal-weight adults. What's been missing
in this sea of numbers are state-level estimates, a gap this report
attempts to fill.
The study authors used the 1998
Medical Expenditure Panel Survey linked to the 1996 and 1997 National
Health Interview Surveys to develop a national model for predicting
obesity-attributable medical expenditures.
The sparsely populated state of
Wyoming spent the least total amount on obesity-attributable medical
expenditures ($87 million), while California spent the most
($7.7 billion). Obesity-attributable Medicaid expenditure
estimates ranged from $23 million in Wyoming to $3.5 billion
in New York. Medicare expenditures ranged from $15 million
in Wyoming to $1.7 billion in California.
The estimated percentage of annual
medical expenditures attributable to obesity ranged from 4 percent
in Arizona to 6.7 percent in Alaska and the District of Columbia.
Medicare expenditures ranged from 3.9 percent in Arizona to 9.8
percent in Delaware. Medicaid expenditures took up a larger percentage
of the total, and ranged from 7.7 percent in Rhode Island to 15.7
percent in Indiana.
Overall, obesity-attributable costs
accounted for about 6 percent of adult medical expenditures, half
of which was financed by Medicaid or Medicare.
"This paper shows that obesity
is a financial problem," Finkelstein says. "The government bears
the burden so clearly they have a right -- or certainly a cause
-- for trying to reduce the prevalence and cost of obesity especially
among their populations."
"This is not a society that pays
for prevention. This is a society that pays for a heart attack
once you have it," Nonas adds. "People are reticent about paying
for [obesity], but the facts are very clear: Obesity is increasing
and we have all the diseases that are associated with it . . .The
big message is that obesity isn't even a reimbursable diagnosis,
and it's costing them a fortune."
More information
For more on overweight and obesity,
visit the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.
Reference
Source 101
For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick
Prevention Resources".
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