Obesity Leading in Health Care Costs

With the health-care reform bill looming around the corner, increased attention has been paid to the amount of costs which lead the way within the health industry. The majority of these relates back to the chronic problem of obesity which seems to plague the American population. The United States has already made a name for itself as one of the “larger” Western nations, and with these weight problems come a slew of health issues that stem from obesity. Curing such problems has begun to prove to be a large task for the health care industry as more funds are typically needed to battle the ongoing role obesity has in many serious health problems.
Overall, new studies have indicated that obese Americans spend about 42 percent more on health care than normal-weight Americans. That means they give a lot more work to medical billing workers. This cost has reached epic proportions, with figures nearly $147 billion a year in 2008 alone. While this figure represents only 10 percent of all medical spending, it is still largely disproportionate when considering that obesity can be easily avoided if Americans simply watch what they eat. With the amount of documentaries on Discovery Health and TLC which chronicle the lives of morbidly-obese individuals, it is no surprise that while Americans are well aware of the weight problems in the nation, many are not doing much to prevent this epidemic from spreading. Fast food restaurants have even tried to upgrade their menu in an effort to present healthier alternatives to the calorie-loaded meals which reign within these places. However, with obesity still a prominent issue, it is revealed that obese Americans spend $1,429 more on health care each year than normal-weight Americans.
Most of this spending comes from buying prescription drugs that are needed in order to manage obesity-related conditions, such as diabetes or heart disease. Diabetes is one health problem that is getting rapidly worse as more Americans battle obesity and therefore conditions that run along with it. As technology advances, thereby allowing Americans to do less and less physical activity, the health care bills will only begin to increase as weight gain rises at the same time. In only two decades, Americans are found to consume 250 more calories a day than they did previously, which indicates a rise in eating out as well as a decrease in home-cooked meals. By simply stopping this type of behavior when children are young, rather than opting for the fast-food cheeseburger, we can help decrease the obesity of the next generation and thereby lower health care costs across the nation.

This post was contributed by Jill Gordon, who writes about the LPN nursing schools. She welcomes your feedback at Jill.Gordon@ yahoo.com