The food and health sectors of the American economy are pushing in precisely opposite directions. One rakes in hundreds of billions fattening people up, the other takes in hundreds of billions more trying to slim them back down or manage the diseases of obesity.
In the middle are the people eating large quantities of fattening foods and then undergoing the consequent medical procedures.
From today’s Wall Street Journal:
New research shows medical spending averages $1,400 more a year for an obese person than for someone who’s normal weight.Overall obesity-related health spending reaches $147 billion, double what it was nearly a decade ago, says the study published Monday by the journal Health Affairs.
The higher expense reflects the costs of treating diabetes, heart disease and other ailments far more common for the overweight, concluded the study by government scientists and the nonprofit research group RTI International.
RTI health economist Eric Finkelstein offers a blunt message for lawmakers trying to revamp the health-care system: “Unless you address obesity, you’re never going to address rising health-care costs.”
Obesity-related conditions now account for 9.1% of all medical spending, up from 6.5% in 1998, the study concluded.
