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Obesity Costs U.S. About $147 Billion Annually

Weight-related health costs soar

By James Limbach
ConsumerAffairs.com

July 29, 2009

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Annual medical expenditures attributable to obesity have doubled in less than a decade, and -- according to a study be researchers at RTI International, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention(CDC) -- may be as high as $147 billion per year.

The study, published on the Health Affairs' Web site, reports that, between 1998 and 2006, the prevalence of obesity (body mass index greater than 30) increased by 37 percent.

This increase is responsible for 89 percent of the increase in obesity costs that occurred during this time period. The results reveal that obesity is now responsible for 9.1 percent of annual medical expenditures, compared with 6.5 percent in 1998.

The results also showed that an obese person has $1,429 per year more medical costs, or about 42 percent more costs, than someone of normal weight. Costs for an obese Medicare recipient are even greater.

Much of the costs to Medicare are a result of the added prescription drug benefit. The results reveal that Medicare prescription drug payments for obese individuals are roughly $600 more per year than drug payments for normal weight beneficiaries.

The researchers also found that 8.5 percent of Medicare expenditures, 11.8 percent of Medicaid expenditures, and 12.9 percent of private payer expenditures are attributable to obesity.

"Although bariatric surgery and other treatments for obesity are increasing in popularity, in actuality these treatments remain rare," said Eric Finkelstein, Ph.D., director of RTI's Public Health Economics Program and the study's lead author. "As a result, the medical costs attributable to obesity are almost entirely a result of costs generated from treating the diseases that obesity promotes. Thus, obesity will continue to impose a significant burden on the health care system as long as the prevalence of obesity remains high."

The CDC discussed the study findings along with new recommendations designed to prevent and reduce the impact obesity has upon communities at the "Weight of the Nation" conference, a three-day meeting of public health experts, policy leaders, and researchers held recently in Washington, D.C.

The analysis was based on data from the 1998 and 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys and the study was funded by the CDC Foundation.

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