Economic Impact Of Obesity

Obesity is a serious problem in the United States and has increased rapidly over the last few years. Obesity has a lot of other potential health risks or problems that have a great economic impact on the health care system today. The diseases that are associated with obesity are high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks, diabetes, and arthritis. Obese patients’ health care cost and out of pocket spending is expected to increase with the rise of obesity. According to a study of national costs attributed to both overweight (BMI 25–29.9) and obesity (BMI greater than 30), medical expenses accounted for 9.1 percent of total U.S. medical expenditures in 1998 and may have reached as high as $78.5 billion ($92.6 billion in 2002 dollars) (Finkelstein, Fiebelkorn, and Wang, 2003). The long term economic impact of obesity will be astronomical if there is not preventive measures and education put into place. Obesity has had a great effect on state and federal funds of Medicaid and Medicare. It appears by all the cited information that over
Together we all can help stop the epidemic if we band together and take the initiative to incorporate better choices far as in eating and physical activity to keep us healthy and living longer. It can be done one step at a time. Take the challenge and see what you can do in your state, your community to educate and make others aware and change the impact of obesity as we know it today.

References
Finkelstein, EA, Fiebelkorn, IC, Wang, G. National medical spending attributable to overweight and obesity: How much, and who's paying? Health Affairs 2003; W3; 219–226.
Finkelstein, EA, Fiebelkorn, IC, Wang, G. State-level estimates of annual medical expenditures attributable to obesity. Obesity Research 2004; 12(1):18–24.
Wolf, A. What is the economic case for treating obesity? Obesity Research. 1998; 6(suppl)