Nah, it's Bush's fault

**leejo** · 10-20-2004, 05:38 PM

from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2004Oct19.html

Quote:

Obesity Gets Part of Blame for Care Costs
Early Intervention Is Key to Controlling Rising Health Spending, Study Author Says

By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer

More than a quarter of the phenomenal growth in health care spending over the past 15 years is attributable to obesity, Emory University researchers reported yesterday.

With 60 percent of the U.S. population deemed overweight or obese, study author Kenneth Thorpe said the only way to control soaring medical costs is to begin targeting prevention efforts and treatment on the most costly weight-related illnesses, such as diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease.

"We've got to find ways to get the rates of obesity stabilized or falling," he said in an interview. "We need to find effective interventions to deal with this on multiple levels -- the schools, at home, in the workplace -- because clearly this is a major driver in terms of growth in health care spending."

From 1987 to 2001, medical bills for obese people constituted 27 percent of the growth in overall health care spending, he found. The jump in spending was attributable to both a rise in the number of obese Americans and higher costs for treating those patients.

Treating obese patients was 37 percent more expensive than medical care for normal-weight people, Thorpe and colleagues wrote in the journal Health Affairs. Put another way, obesity accounted for an extra $301 per person in medical spending over the 15-year study period.

"The actual numbers are probably higher," Thorpe said, because his team relied on people who self-reported their weight and height.

Obesity is determined by body mass index or BMI (a formula in which a person's weight in kilograms is divided by the square of his or her height in meters). A score higher than 30 is deemed obese; 25-30 is considered overweight. By those standards, a six-foot man weighing 225 pounds is categorized as obese.

Federal officials have estimated that treating obesity-related illnesses costs about $93 billion a year, but Thorpe is the first to examine the impact on the overall growth in health spending. The Emory team based its analysis on inflation-adjusted federal data on medical spending and health status.

"These numbers show that the prevailing approach for dealing with obesity, which is to blame people who have the problem and hope the situation will disappear, is a fantasy," said Kelly Brownell, director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders. "Something dramatic needs to be done to change the environment in order to prevent this problem from occurring in the first place."

Before 1980, obesity in the United States remained fairly stable, at about 15 percent of the population. In the following two decades, however, the problem reached epidemic proportions, fueled primarily by a more sedentary lifestyle, processed foods and extra-large portions.

Brownell advocates creation of a $1.5 billion "Nutrition Superfund" raised by imposing a 1-cent federal tax on each can or bottle of soda. The money could be used for a massive advertising and education program, especially aimed at children, he said.

"Once you are obese, it is very hard to treat, so prevention makes sense," he said. "And when you focus on children, you get away from the libertarian arguments that adults are just doing this to themselves."

The financial toll is pronounced in people with diabetes, high cholesterol or heart disease, researchers said. Forty-one percent of the rise in spending on heart disease was obesity-related.

The data come as insurers and some government agencies have begun adopting broader reimbursement policies for treating weight-related illnesses. The federal Medicare program announced in July it would begin considering requests to cover weight-loss therapies, and three months later Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina said it will provide special services to more than 1 million members with weight problems.

Earlier this month, a panel of the National Academy of Sciences called for numerous changes, including mandatory exercise for all schoolchildren, nutrition standards for school cafeteria food and new limits on the marketing of junk food to children.

A spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said its budget for nutrition, physical activity and obesity for fiscal year 2004 is $45 million, up from $34 million the previous year.

**TheFeniX** · 10-20-2004, 09:03 PM

This is easy: we just sue McDonald's because some people can't stop cramming cheese-burgers down their kid's and their own fat mouth. I mean, come on, someone MUST pay because these people's freedom to choose what they want to eat made them fat.

On the other hand, I don't really think I want the government trying to tell me what I can and can't eat. I'm already a picky eater and no pencil-neck is going to narrow that list even more. They did hit on good points in offering incentives for people to blow off weight. Even though they should do it for themselves, you have to help some people along the way.

My motivation for going from 6' 2" ,265 lbs to 205 lbs was that I got tired of looking like a fat slob and being winded from walking up and down stairs.

Lirix · 10-21-2004, 02:25 AM

"...and being winded from walking up and down stairs." - TheFeniX

Come to Denver. You'll have an excuse: no oxygen.

wickerman · 10-21-2004, 12:35 PM

Quote:

a six-foot man weighing 225 pounds is categorized as obese.

So almost all NFL players qualify as obese. The problem with blanket assumptions such as this is that they're fill of sh!t.

I'm not saying we don't have a weight problem in this country, but a 225 pound 6 foot guy is NOT automatically obese, as this survey would have you believe.

**leejo** · 10-21-2004, 12:43 PM

I think the 6'0'' men who weigh 225 pounds and aren't obese know damn well that they aren't obese because they're running several miles every day and working out like crazy.

For everyone else, those doctors may be on to something...

10-20-2004, 09:03 PM	#2 (permalink)
TheFeniX Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Houston, TX Age: 26 Posts: 4,478	Re: Nah, it's Bush's fault This is easy: we just sue McDonald's because some people can't stop cramming cheese-burgers down their kid's and their own fat mouth. I mean, come on, someone MUST pay because these people's freedom to choose what they want to eat made them fat. On the other hand, I don't really think I want the government trying to tell me what I can and can't eat. I'm already a picky eater and no pencil-neck is going to narrow that list even more. They did hit on good points in offering incentives for people to blow off weight. Even though they should do it for themselves, you have to help some people along the way. My motivation for going from 6' 2" ,265 lbs to 205 lbs was that I got tired of looking like a fat slob and being winded from walking up and down stairs. __________________ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - TheFeniX's Steam Profile TG's Team Fortress 2 Steam Group

10-21-2004, 02:25 AM	#3 (permalink)
Lirix Join Date: May 2003 Location: Aurora, CO Age: 29 Posts: 173	Re: Nah, it's Bush's fault "...and being winded from walking up and down stairs." - TheFeniX Come to Denver. You'll have an excuse: no oxygen.

10-21-2004, 12:43 PM	#5 (permalink)
leejo Join Date: Sep 2003 Age: 39 Posts: 7,839	Re: Nah, it's Bush's fault I think the 6'0'' men who weigh 225 pounds and aren't obese know damn well that they aren't obese because they're running several miles every day and working out like crazy. For everyone else, those doctors may be on to something...

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