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Obesity Costs and Trends
August 1, 2008
Several rather sobering studies were published this week regarding the costs of obesity and its current trend.
The first has to do with elderly Americans1 entering the current Medicare system in an overweight or obese condition. Overweight adds an extra $15,000 and obesity adds an extra $25,000 to the cost of that person's care that taxpayer's will pay for. This equates to hundreds of billions of dollars as the overweight and obese baby boomer population hits the Medicare system. No candidate running for president has factored these costs into their health plans – imagine that. Nor have the costs of all the obese teenagers and young adults been factored into any candidate's proposed health care program.
The next study has to do with obesity rates2. It says that 80% of Americans age 18 and older will be overweight or obese by 2022, up from the current 65%. By 2030 that number climbs to 86% of Americans. By 2030 half the adult population will be obese; however the researchers predicted that 97 percent of black women and 91 percent of Mexican-American men will be obese by this time.
These researchers predicted that obesity-related costs would double each decade, reaching almost 1 trillion dollars by 2030. No society can possibly incur such expense and remain viable. Ideas anyone?
The first has to do with elderly Americans1 entering the current Medicare system in an overweight or obese condition. Overweight adds an extra $15,000 and obesity adds an extra $25,000 to the cost of that person's care that taxpayer's will pay for. This equates to hundreds of billions of dollars as the overweight and obese baby boomer population hits the Medicare system. No candidate running for president has factored these costs into their health plans – imagine that. Nor have the costs of all the obese teenagers and young adults been factored into any candidate's proposed health care program.
The next study has to do with obesity rates2. It says that 80% of Americans age 18 and older will be overweight or obese by 2022, up from the current 65%. By 2030 that number climbs to 86% of Americans. By 2030 half the adult population will be obese; however the researchers predicted that 97 percent of black women and 91 percent of Mexican-American men will be obese by this time.
These researchers predicted that obesity-related costs would double each decade, reaching almost 1 trillion dollars by 2030. No society can possibly incur such expense and remain viable. Ideas anyone?
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