Obesity Sends Health Costs Soaring

[HuckleB]

Obesity Sends Health Costs Soaring

http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/06/27/hscout526522.html

"Americans' widening waistlines are the main force behind rising U.S. health care costs, a new study shows.

Between 1987 and 2002, the proportion of private health spending attributable to obesity increased more than tenfold, researchers report, from $3.6 billion to $36.5 billion.

In the year 2002, obesity-related medical care spending accounted for 11.6 percent of all private health care spending compared to just 2 percent in 1987, concludes an article published today in Health Affairs.

"We can focus on obesity and we should be," said study lead author, Kenneth Thorpe, the Robert W. Woodruff professor and chair of the department of health policy and management at Emory University in Atlanta. "We need to have the same type of societal attention on this issue that we gave to smoking 20 years ago," Thorpe added.

...



The lead is misleading. Still, this isn't the only study that shows obesity as one factor among many in regard to health care costs.

[Mari333]

1. The same type of social attention wont happen

because the tyranny of the majority wont allow it to happen. They dont like fingers being pointed at them.

[Patiod]

2. Everyone claims their state is the worst

Part of my job involves interviewing pharmacy directors from the big insurance companies. When the subject is diabetes or diet drugs or anything where weight is involved, they'll always insist their state has the fattest population:

"Well, as you know, Louisiana is the fattest state in the US"

"And of course, people think Oregonians are thin, but you've never seen Eastern Oregon - on average, we're the fattest state in the Union"

"And I'm in Wisconsin, where obesity is more of a problem than anywhere else"

[Warpy]

3. Gee, spending on obesity related health care escalated 10 times

And just how much did health care NOT directly linked to obesity inflate? About ten times, you say?

This seems like just another way to lie with statistics and blame the victims.

Obesity is not a will power issue. People can starve themselves down to a "normal" weight, but 90% and more regain that weight (and more) within 5 years. Even the surgical options are proving to be temporary fixes, at best, since even those folks start to regain the weight within 5 years.

We don't know what causes obesity. We don't know how to "cure" it. We only know how to look down our long blue noses at the obese and call them gluttons.

That's the statistic the young and the naturally thin need to look at: that 90% and more regain weight within 5 years, even after surgery. It's a dismal statistic that should tell them that weight is as much within our control as skin color and blood type are.

[China_cat]

6. Part of what causes obesity is poverty

You buy and eat what's cheap...which is fatty meats (if any), high carb, empty calorie cheap food. What fills the belly but does nothing for nutrition.

It takes money to buy what is best and time to prepare it. People working 2 and 3 jobs just to keep a roof over their heads have neither.

[HuckleB]

7. I think it's a bit more complex than that.

The "glutton" finger pointers are a minority, in my experience.

Obesity and Genectics: A Public Health Perspective:
http://www.cdc.gov/genomics/info/perspectives/obesity.htm

[LiberalEsto]

4. So why won't health insurance cover weight loss treatment?

The health insurance industry whines frequently about how much it costs them to provide care for obesity-related conditions. But they usually refuse to cover the cost of weight-management programs such as Weight Watchers, or exercise classes.

It seems to me that it would be good preventive medicine to offer coverage for weight control treatment, and save money over the long run by avoiding treatment for obesity-related conditions such as heart disease, asthma, etc.

Oh, I forgot! The rethugs & the B*sh administration do whatever the health insurance industry wants, so nobody will make the insurers cover weight loss treatment. Tough on us!

[mcscajun]

5. They won't cover weight-loss treatment

because it's a monetary "black hole", and they know it.

The diet industry and agribusiness keep it going and the insurance company isn't going there.

[undergroundpanther]

8. Fat

And diets don't work.. Fat isn't a MORAL issue. It's a body's protective response..and defense.

Child abuse can lead to a fat adult future
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12119573&dopt=Abstract
What sorts of toxins and chemicals get in the body when the brain is scarred by trauma and chemical traumas? PSTD is when the body cannot shut off the vilagence ,long term stress can deteriorate health.

http://www.lef.org/protocols/prtcl-125a.shtml

How long has chemicals like DDT or Xylol or whatever been around and how much of it is contaminating us? Isn't strange how when anient tribal people get exposed to American Chemical food they blow up so fast? Maybe it's not calories maybe it's CHEMICAL Traumas. Nobosy wants to consider this,especially the big money corporations making us sick.Tort reform anybody?

Fat might be a symptom of inflammation? Is Inflammation Part of the Neurodegenerative Process? ..scroll down http://home.goulburn.net.au/~shack/updates.htm
Consider how botox works cosmetically..
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Botox_for_cosmetic_treatments?OpenDocument

Could fat be a stressed out poisioned bodies reaction to processed polluted chemical laden food? In recent years toxins have been getting in higher saturations in the environment. People react to toxinns differently depending on the chemical stew they have in thier bodies. Already you can detect hundreds of chemicals in human blood. Don't tell me all this pollution does not affect our health!

http://www.aresearchguide.com/drktoxins.html
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/

[mcscajun]

9. Very informative post!

:)

[Dear Maggie]

11. Good points - we are a chemically poisoned people

Some people have dieted over and over again (yo-yo dieting) just to gain back the weight they lost and more.

My thoughts go to the Syndrome X and even type 2 diabetes that often show up later in life ... (similar to brain tumors ... which could be a birth defect) And that these are autoimmune issues from a chemical exposure many or our parents had in WWII and before.

I suspect that 2-butoxyethanol type chemical is the primary cause of death for President FDR.

If I'm right about this undetected chemical we should see the health ailments it causes explode like never before.

Glyconutrients seem to be offering help But stopping the use of 2-butoxyethanol might be a better plan.

[Dear Maggie]

12. an Autoimmune Metabolic Problem?

Is Being Overweight an Autoimmune Metabolic Problem?

I met a nurse practitioner who was pretty outstanding. She commented that the epidemic of obesity in our country must be more than just diet and exercise. Something else must be going on. I think she's right.

I shared some thoughts on the harm of 2-butoxyethanol (n-butyl ethers) since WWII and that the baby boomer generation & on could have the 'birth defects' from it such as Syndrome X, Type 2 diabetes & many autoimmune issues & other metabolic dysfunction.

... check link for cont. illustrations ....

[landoisnum1]

10. why don't we just make the health care cheaper for the physically fit?

[HuckleB]

13. Free to Choose Obesity?

Free to Choose Obesity?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/08/opinion/08krugman.html?hp

"...

In public, the industry's companies proclaim themselves good guys, committed to healthier eating. Meanwhile, they outsource the campaigns against medical researchers and the dissemination of crude anti-anti-obesity propaganda to industry-financed advocacy groups like the Center for Consumer Freedom.

More broadly, the ideological landscape has changed drastically since the 1960's. (That change in the landscape also has a lot to do with corporate financing of advocacy groups, but that's a tale for another article.) In today's America, proposals to do something about rising obesity rates must contend with a public predisposed to believe that the market is always right and that the government always screws things up.

You can see these predispositions at work in an article printed last month in Amber Waves, a magazine published by the Department of Agriculture. The article is titled "Obesity Policy and the Law of Unintended Consequences," suggesting that government efforts to combat obesity are likely to be counterproductive. But the authors don't actually provide any examples of how that might happen.

And the authors suggest, without quite asserting it, that because people freely choose obesity in a free market, it must be a good thing.

..."