http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/obesity_insurance.html
Overweight Americans Weigh Down Insurance System
June 27, 2005
Americans' battle of the bulge is also becoming a weighty problem for
the nation's health care system. Not only are more Americans showing
signs of obesity, health care professionals claim the cost of treating
obesity-related ailments has risen 1000 percent over a 15-year period.
Medical researchers, writing in Health Affairs, compared the money
spent treating obese patients in 1987 with the amount spent in 2002.
They found an increase from $3.6 billion to $36.5 billion. That means
nearly 12 percent of all health care spending in 2002 is now directed
at patients who are severely overweight.
"We need to have the same type of societal attention on this issue that
we gave to smoking 20 years ago," said Kenneth Thorpe, lead author of
the study.
Thorpe says the staggering increase cannot be attributed to the
increase in obesity-related diseases alone. He says another major
factor is the skyrocketing cost of health care in general. Both
factors, he says, are leading to much higher health insurance premiums
as insurance companies scramble to cover the rising medical costs.
The researchers said the rising insurance company spending can be
traced to the cost of treating the obese. In 2001, they said,
overweight people with private health insurance pushed up insurance
outlays an average of $1,200 per person when compared with people with
healthy weights. In 1987, the difference was less than $300.
Type 2 diabetes is the fastest growing ailment afflicting the
overweight. The number of cases of adult-onset diabetes increased by
64% between 1987 and 2001.
The study shows that more than 15 percent of obese adults were treated
for six or more medical conditions in 2002, double the number from 15
years ago. For those 80 pounds or more overweight, the percentage
jumped to 25 percent.
With nearly a third of Americans clinically obese (30 pounds or more
overweight) Thorpe says the medical profession should focus more
attention on making sure patients are at a normal weight, rather than
waiting and treating them for the inevitable ailments that follow just
a few years of obesity.
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That is a lotta money.
TC