Overweight Costing America Nearly $100 Billion

Link to summary and commentary by Dr. Mercola

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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DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT:


In the United States, obesity causes at least 300,000 excess deaths, and health care costs of American obese adults amount to, as the study says, close to $100 billion.

Yet despite efforts to sound the alarm about obesity and related diabetes in the United States, rates of both conditions continue to skyrocket.

Most U.S. adults (more than 56 percent) are overweight, about 1 in 5 is obese, and 7.3 percent have diabetes. The prevalence of diabetes could be as high as 10 percent if undiagnosed cases are considered.

This is especially tragic as these conditions are nearly 100 percent preventable by following a proper nutrition plan and exercising.

It is also important to know that more than one out of every 14 Americans has diabetes. As I mentioned above, that is a full 7.3 percent of the population as a conservative estimate.

Don't miss this point: Experts are suggesting that the incidence of diabetes could be as high as 10 percent. That is one out of every 10 people in the United States.