A new report published in the journal Health Affairs shows that the cost of treating obesity-related health problems has doubled in the past decade, from 78 billion a year in 1998 to 147 billion in 2008.  Each obese person costs the overall health system an extra $1,429 per year, a 42% higher cost to insure compared to a normal weight person.  Two-thirds of Americans are overweight and one-third are obese. 

Last year the journal Obesity reported on obesity trends and costs, projecting that “by 2030 86.3% adults will be overweight or obese….Black women (96.9%) and Mexican-American men (91.1%) would be the most affected….Total health-care costs attributable to obesity/overweight would double every decade to 860.7–956.9 billion US dollars by 2030, accounting for 16–18% of total US health-care costs.”

The majority of the incurred costs relate to diseases that obesity causes, such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.  By and large, the path to disease through obesity is self inflicted.  The costs are staggering.

It is apparently politically incorrect to discuss this issue in any meaningful way.  However, the block of 46 million uninsured Americans are likely to be higher than the existing pool of insured Americans in rate of obesity.

Why do Americans who watch their weight, eat well, exercise, and do multiple things to be healthier want to pay for the health costs of people who spend their lives pigging out on junk food?  How is that remotely fair?

This is one major part of health costs that must be addressed to achieve the goal of a financially solvent health system.  The failure to do so will result in class and race conflict.

My proposal is to limit the amount of money to be spent on health care for any individual whose waistline is more than twice his/her height in inches (a low tech and reliable indicator of the amount of extra fat that is associated with disease risk).  For every extra inch of waistline above this point an individual’s insurance rates should rise, or treatments should be denied above a certain point unless they are paid for out of pocket.

There is no other fair way to do this.  While some will consider such an approach heartless, it is the obese person who is heartless to themselves.  Society cannot foot the burden of gross irresponsibility.  This problem permeates the existing health care system and is one of the main drivers of current costs ballooning out of control.

Unless real cost issues are tackled head on, such as self-inflicted health problems like obesity or fraudulent Big Pharma drug sales, neither the current system or any future system has a prayer of containing costs in a way that would allow individuals and families affordable health care for legitimate reasons.

Posted by Mitchell at 09:42 PM.

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