Re: Obesity Driving Rising U.S. Health Costs
- From: Angry Dave <ddbarden@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:41:26 -0000
On Oct 3, 10:06 pm, ChrisT <microm...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 3 Oct 2007 10:33:10 -0000, olive...@xxxxxxxxxxx (Oliver) wrote:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20071003/hl_hsn/obesitydrivingrisingushea...
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
Tue Oct 2, 11:45 PM ET
TUESDAY, Oct. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Obesity is a big factor driving soaring
rates of chronic disease in the United States, with many more Americans
chronically ill than their European counterparts, a new study finds.
It's an expensive problem, too: According to researchers, chronic illnesses
such as diabetes and heart disease account for some $100 to $150 billion in
health-care spending in the United States each year.
"The United States spends twice as much as European countries on health
care," noted lead researcher Kenneth Thorpe, chairman of the department of
health policy and management at Emory University's Rollins School of Public
Health in Atlanta. "Seventy-five percent of what we spend in this country
is associated with patients that have one or more chronic conditions and
most of the growth is due to obesity."
"We have got to find more effective means to reduce, and at the worst,
stabilize this persistent rise in obesity among adults and kids in this
country," he said.
In addition, experts must find better and less expensive ways of managing
chronic health-care problems, Thorpe said.
"That's where all the money is being spent," he said. "We are not going to
control costs until we get the level and growth in chronic disease
prevalence down."
The report appears in the Oct. 2 online edition of Health Affairs.
In the study, Thorpe's team compared 2004 data on the prevalence and
treatment of diseases among adults aged 50 and older in the United States
and Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Spain,
Sweden and Switzerland.
They report that about 17 percent of European adults are obese, compared
with around a third of American adults. In addition, 53 percent of adult
Americans are either former or current smokers, compared with 43 percent of
those in Europe. American adults were also more likely than Europeans to
have heart disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung disease -- all
associated with obesity and/or smoking.
"The United States spends more on health care than any country in Europe,"
Thorpe said. In the United States, in 2004 the per capita spending on
health care was $6,102 -- about twice as much as in the Netherlands and
Germany, and almost twice that of France.
If the prevalence of obesity could be reduced (and along with it, chronic
disease), Thorpe's team estimates that health spending could be cut by $100
billion to $150 billion per year, trimming up to 18.7 percent off the
nation's total health-care budget.
There are several reasons for the costs of chronic disease in the United
States, Thorpe's group notes. In addition to high rates of obesity and
smoking, these include more aggressive cancer screening in the United
States than in Europe, and more intensive drug treatment for chronic
disease than in Europe, further driving up costs.
Thorpe believes the only way to get health-care costs under control is to
find ways to reduce obesity. "There is a lack of an effective primary-care
system in this country," he said. "We have to manage patients with chronic
conditions more effectively, and we have got to find a way to prevent this
rise in obesity."
One expert agreed with the scope of the problem, but said solutions remain
elusive.
"There are two reasons why the U.S. might spend more of our total economy
on health care than any other country -- treatment here costs more, and
more of us need treatment," said Dr. David L. Katz, director of the
Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine.
That Americans are fatter than Europeans comes as no surprise, Katz said,
but that more Americans smoke is surprising. "This finding does make me
question the reliability of the data to some degree. But even if we know
for sure that Americans have more chronic disease risk factors than
populations abroad, it doesn't necessarily tell us how to fix the problem,"
he said.
Obesity rates in Europe are rising fast, so "we are exporting our bad
example and higher health-care costs may well follow [there]," Katz said.
"Without a doubt, the high costs of health care are best reduced by the
propagation of health. Defining how best to get there from here is as yet a
challenge inadequately met."
Another health-care cost expert agreed.
"I'm not sure obesity is a medical condition that lends itself to medical
treatment," said Greg Scandlen, the founder of Consumers for Health Care
Choices, a health-care lobbying group. "Certainly, it does suggest the need
for more exercise and better diets, but that is a grandmother's advice. Do
we need highly trained and expensive professionals telling people what
grandmothers have told them for free for generations?"
"I'm just not sure this information is of much use to the health-care
system, though it may be for the education system," Scandlen said. His
suggestions? "Bring back P.E. classes, [use the] transportation system, use
more bicycles and fewer cars, and urban design, get rid of escalators so
people will walk up stairs," he said.
More information
For more information on the cost of health care, visit the Kaiser Family
Foundation.
Do I smell a "fat" tax coming. Every pound over weight = X Dollar tax
or something like that ?
The Nazis couldn'd breed a perfect race, what makes you think you
can economically force people into becoming the "perfect race"
It always pisses people off when I ask why the oldest living person
EVER was a smoker (122 yrs old). My grandfather smoked, drank a 1/5 of
whiskey ever week and chased old ladies until he was 92, George Burns
was a smoker and died over 100 years old. Dr. Spock the childrens
doctor smoked and he made it to 92. why??
I cannot name any fat person who made it to 100. Can I conclude fat
is really more detrimental than smoking"?
The latest study shows driving on a busy highway to be more
detrimental than second hand smoke.
I would like to see a study done on where the most diseases per
100,000 occur. Could it be living in a filthy air city with a lack of
activities causes more Obesity than rural living with fresh air and
lots of activities.
Curious minds want to know the truth not the politically correct
mantra.- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
Perfect... and why not. Every time politicos need more money for some
new social health initiative they want to tax cigarettes for the cash,
so why not fat. Nothing in the law that says you can't discriminate
against fat people. Just make people's insurance rates match their
BMI... healthy height & weight = cheaper rate, mordibly obese slob =
much higher rate. You want a lower cost, get off the friggin' couch,
put down the fork, and go walk around the block a few times.
.
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