Summary
A new study by Emory University researchers found that, between 1987 and 2002, private health spending on obesity increased from $3.6 billion to $36.5 billion, Forbes reports, and the study also showed more than half of the growth in spending was due to increased prevalence of disease rather cost of treatment.
Original source:
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/06/27/hscout526522.html
Details
Americans' widening waistlines are the main force behind rising U.S. health care costs, a new study shows.
Between 1987 and 2002, the proportion of private health spending attributable to obesity increased more than tenfold, researchers report, from $3.6 billion to $36.5 billion.
In the year 2002, obesity-related medical care spending accounted for 11.6 percent of all private health care spending compared to just 2 percent in 1987, concludes an article published today in Health Affairs.
"We need to have the same type of societal attention on this issue that we gave to smoking 20 years ago," Thorpe added.
Specifically, they were concerned with spending among privately insured adults aged 18 to 64 for the top 20 medical conditions.
"We found overwhelmingly that the rise in private insurance spending was traced to the fact that we were treating more and more people with a variety of chronic health conditions," Thorpe said.
In other words, more people are sick now than before; predominantly with conditions linked to obesity such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
This means that in 2001, obese adults with private health insurance spent $1,244 more per person per year on health care than normal-weight adults.
"Obesity is a very expensive health problem and, unlike some other health problems, doesn't appear to be topping out.
It appears to be accelerating," said Dr. Tom Farley, co-author of Prescription for a Healthy Nation and professor of community health sciences at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans.
This is a society-wide problem and we need society-wide solutions."
Unfortunately, the debate on how to curb this growth in
obesity and its related expense is focusing on the wrong issues, Thorpe said.
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health researcher, author and award-winning journalist with a passion for teaching people how to improve their health He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, and he has authored and published several downloadable personal preparedness courses including a downloadable course focused on safety and self defense. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2010, Adams co-founded NaturalNews.com, a natural health video sharing site that has now grown in popularity. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also a veteran of the software technology industry, having founded a personalized mass email software product used to deliver email newsletters to subscribers. Adams is currently the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates. Known on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org
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Thursday, July 21, 2005
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