Yesterday on the front page of the USA Today newspaper was an article detailing the extent of how obesity is costing America billions of dollars in medical care. Americans who are 30 pounds or more above a healthy body weight are costing the country 147 BILLION dollars in obesity-associated medical problems in 2008 and this is DOUBLE the amount from 1998. Obesity accounts for 9.1% of healthcare expenditures whic is up from 6.5 % in 1998.
Obesity is the biggest reason for healthcare cost increases and most of this 147 BILLION dollars is being paid by taxpayers as over 50% of the obesity-related expenditures are taking place in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
As the President and our elected officials are working through healthcare reform, it is imperative that the obesity epidemic must be addressed and steps taken to reverse this trend. Otherwise, the entire system will collapse from lack of money to pay for the services and medications required.
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I wonder how they did their calculations. If they came up with the 147 BILLION dollars in "obesity-associated" medical problems for "people who are 30 lbs or more above a healthy body weight" what about the "skinny people" with heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, lung disease, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, etc. Where are those figures? I think this is an unfair statement. Sounds biased to me. If they are SO concerned with those figures, why don't they help pay for weight loss programs for obese patients like they do for smoking addiction, drug addiction and alcohol addiction? What are they suggesting, dropping obese people from the health care system?
From an obese client
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