Obesity Is Hurting the U.S. Economy in Surprising Ways

[applegrove]

Obesity Is Hurting the U.S. Economy in Surprising Ways

by Unknown at Bloomberg

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-05/american-economy-has-a-weight-problem-as-costs-of-obesity-mount

"SNIP..............



Unaddressed, the costs could continue to mount, with health-care expenses being the most direct economic consequence.

Widespread obesity raised medical-care costs by $315.8 billion in 2010, according to John Cawley, an economics professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. That amounted to about $3,508 a year for each obese person, the latest available data showed. The expenses, which include doctors’ appointments, hospital stays, prescription drugs and home health care, were up 48 percent from 2005’s $213 billion after adjusting for inflation, the researchers found.

The findings, to be published later this year in the journal PharmacoEconomics, represent the combined work of fellow researchers Chad Meyerhoefer, Adam Biener, Mette Hammer and Neil Wintfeld.

Expensive Treatment

Chronic illnesses linked to obesity, such as diabetes and heart disease, as well as stroke and cancer, are expensive to treat, Cawley said. Moreover, the costs are usually paid by private and public health insurance, meaning that leaner people are subsidizing those with less healthy diets, he said. “All of us are paying these costs.”



..............SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. FLOTUS was helping the economy with her eat veggies and move campaigns. Then again the conservative

attacks against her were all about trying to make sure the GOP base didn't connect with anyone black in the white house less the southern strategy stop working on them.

[enough]

2. Stop subsidizing sugar, and tax it, massively. (nt)

Sugar Subsidies Are a Bitter Deal for American Consumers
http://www.economics21.org/commentary/sugar-subsidies-are-bitter-deal-american-consumers

snip>

Perhaps no industry has received as much bipartisan federal support as Big Sugar. Cochran, a supporter of pro-sugar agricultural policy, has received a total of $40,500 from the sugar industry this year, and his position is hardly unique. American Crystal Sugar Company has donated over $1.3 million to 221 members of Congress this election cycle, following $1.4 million spent on lobbying in 2013.

Lawmakers across the political spectrum, from Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) to Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), support using taxpayer dollars to subsidize the American sugar industry. In the House, 46 percent of members—109 Democrats and 92 Republicans—received money from American Crystal Sugar in this election cycle.

The program that supports the American sugar industry has many facets. Most infamous is a subsidy program in which the U.S. Department of Agriculture gives loans to sugar farmers and allows them to repay those loans with raw sugar if sugar prices fall below 20.9 cents per pound. This program functions as an effective mass purchase of sugar, which drives up prices for consumers and thus doubly subsidizes the industry. The USDA then sells this sugar at a steeply discounted price to ethanol producers. Last year the USDA spent $53.3 million on the program. Including the loans that could not be repaid, the government spent $171.5 million.

snip> more at link

[applegrove]

3. Also the corn producers who sell hfcs.

[nichomachus]

27. And corn producers who sell corn

Corn is bad for you -- not just HFCS. Most of our agricultural land has been turned over to producing corn -- which is a horrible thing to eat. But it is in everything -- even your chicken and beef products, which have become nothing more than corn delivery systems.

McDonald's chicken McNuggets have something like 38 ingredients. 13 of them are from corn. And that's not counting the sugar syrup they serve with them. I know people who think they're healthy snacks because they have chicken.

[Major Nikon]

4. Your libertarian source isn't calling for more sugar taxes

Kinda the opposite. They are speaking for the food industry which wants to be able to use foreign sugar tariff free so as to increase their bottom line. The idea they would pass their profits on to consumers and create more jobs is a bit suspect.

They also fail to mention the subsidy program traditionally costs the taxpayer nothing.

[enough]

21. No, I am. (nt)

[Mnemosyne]

5. Maybe the corps could stop putting crap in our food. Nah, never happen. nt

[laundry_queen]

6. I don't know...

the whole article sounds to me like the insurance companies are trying to find a way to demonize fat people in order to charge them more so they can make more money off them. "See! They are costing us money! We SHOULD be able to charge them more! Let's punish them for stealing money from the 1%!"

Regarding the comment, "All of us are paying these costs" that's what insurance is FFS! Pooling the risk! AT what point do we stop judging? "You didn't put sunscreen on so I shouldn't have to pay for your skin cancer treatment? You didn't force your spouse to quit smoking so now we won't pay for your lung cancer treatment? You have cervical cancer caused by HPV? Why should I pay for your promiscuity? You decided to play sports, why should I have to pay for your broken leg?" Do you get where I am going with this? This is a HUGE reason why we need not-for-profit single payer insurance in the US. I'm in Canada, and I'm GLAD there isn't as much judgment here. The government seems more interested in keeping the population healthy because it costs them. In the US, this increased cost is burdened by the insurance company's customers, so the government has no vested interest in the health of its citizens. So it continues to subsidize the crappy food industry, which keeps cranking out cheap food that makes people sick.

UGH!

I'll tell you how to solve the obesity problem - make healthy food CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP.

[applegrove]

7. I'm from Canada and Obese. I liked this article. Really put it in context for me. And I'm glad a

full discussion is taking place. I was a smoker too and appreciate that they made it harder and harder for smokers. Such an awful thing to be unhealthy. And terrible if it destroys health care budgets. But if it makes one think, I am all for articles that put a vice in the big picture.

[daredtowork]

9. The insurance situation is different in the US than in Canada

The more blame that is shifted on to the individual, the more the burden of cost is shifted onto the individual, and the harder it is to get services. Obesity only just started to be categorized as a disease medically, but it still isn't bureaucratically. If you go to a doctor and you are overweight, they will try to attribute every problem to your weight before looking elsewhere, no matter how much of a hurry you are in to get a definitive diagnosis.

And the infuriating part underlying it all - as mentioned in other comments - is a lot of the obesity epidemic relates to aspects of our diet that were "snuck in": hormone triggers, hidden amounts of salt and sugar, years of thinking that carbs didn't create fat, etc. There is an older generation that is overweight because of these bad circumstances (and we drank soda!) and healthier kids who look at us skepitically and wonder why we're costing them so much money with our health care.

Anyway, times have changed, and I don't think it's fair not to take that into account.

[applegrove]

10. I look at it as expensive whether or not the "pool" is government

run or Obama care. I think the money could be spent better elsewhere than needless sickness. I' all for giving the obese a little push with good information. Lives depend on it too.

[daredtowork]

11. We have good information

I'm tired of doctors wasting our 15 minutes of time with the diet and exercise speech and presuming that people aren't constantly spammed with top 10 dietary tips on the Internet.

There are a lot of factors in obesity. It differs for each person. Some can be addressed and some cannot. I have problems with my weight because of mobility problems that have been poorly addressed by the medical system. You can judge judy me all day about whether I've tried this or that, what I do with my time, what I eat - all you will do is make me furious for subjecting me to an interrogation merely on account of how you have evaluated my looks. Yes I go to physical therapy, yes I have an exercise mentor, yes I've seen a nutritionist, yes I do a lot of walking (I don't even drive) - no I don't drink soda, yes my diet is low in salt and fat...by the time I get to the end of my litany I will be ready to give you the finger and stalk off. I'm sure many overweight people feel the same.

Every person's story is different, and the medical system should not be used to "incentivize" them, because that's usually a backend way of penalizing them.

You know what? The most powerful force in the universe is love. People want to look good for other people. Ultimately everyone needs to trust that force is at work somewhere and people struggle the best they can. If they aren't passing universal muster, then don't punish them further with fat-shaming in the name of fiscal prudence.

[applegrove]

12. I totally don't see it as fat shaming. I see it as a wake up call. For nations as a whole.

After all how are you going to get the food corporations to stop putting addictive stuff in their food if the country as a whole does not rise up with their wallets and not buy processed food. I think the article rightly points out that we are all in this together. Which is the opposite of shaming. Shaming is exclusitory. Saying we all have a stake in the obesity epidemic is a novel and a great message.

[daredtowork]

20. The country has already been "woken up" multiple times through fat-shaming

I will trust that you are acting in good faith here, but in the end this article is part of the anti-obamacare blame-the-victime fat-shaming ragers. You say that "we are all in this together", but it is the fat people you are expecting (oppressing, really) to lose weight - whether they are medically able to or not. If they can't, then they are costing everyone else money. Since they are costing everyone else money, they cause underlying anger. That anger comes out in remarks about ugliness and other shaming.

Think about placing your good intentions elsewhere.

[applegrove]

23. I am obese. When I saw the article I thought great stuff, I'll

share it. I only meant for the fight against obesity should be shared. As it should be. Sorry you are offended. I am not. I feel a part of something bigger. And feel more inclined to take care of my health than yesterday. Maybe it will work for others that way too. You don't know.

[daredtowork]

29. As a Canadian, I'm sure it's harder for you to see the agenda

But the Bloomberg source and the anonymous authorship should be a tip off. This article is not out there to help people improve their health. It's there to make obese people responsible for costs of the healthcare system, which is bound to lead to far-shaming, discrimination, and even outright violence from people who feel they shouldn't have to pay.

Meanwhile the causes of obesity are complex and an argument can be made for obesity being systemically inflicted on the generation brought up in the 70s and 80s.

Don't help this libertarian shill.

[meow2u3]

28. Fat-shaming is the wrong way to go about a wake-up call

It's one thing to encourage obese people to lose the excess fat, using positive reinforcement. It's quite another to try to shame heavyset people into losing weight using disincentives such as lectures, scoldings, higher premiums, discrimination, and other disapproving words and deeds.

[mythology]

8. There is an obesity problem in the developed world

You may not want to admit it, but there is an actual cost to it. Both monetarily and otherwise. Acknowledging that isn't wrong. If you are in a healthier group, your insurance rates can drop - this is one reason why a lot of larger companies have moved to self-insuring and using the insurance companies for administrative purposes. It's why many companies are promoting stop smoking initiatives or healthier eating or subsidizing gym memberships.

Sticking your fingers in your ears and claiming that it's all about money and it will lead to not paying for things like cervical cancer is silly.

Also a national health care system wouldn't necessarily be a panacea from what you consider "shaming" as Japan has national health care and a law that requires companies to take steps to combat obesity. It's about taking the impact of a seriously unhealthy population seriously instead of hiding behind the notion that acknowledging being obese has negative outcomes is "shaming".

[eridani]

13. As usual, the correlation is ass backwards

Type II diabetes is genetic. In a modern society where most work is sedentary and there is usually enough to eat, the Type II genes lead to weight gain in adulthood as well as diabetes. IOW, diabetes causes obesity in some.

[applegrove]

15. Diabetes is genetic but can be controlled by diet. For sure

when we were farmers or hunters we got lots of exercise and didn't get diabetes. Our lifestyle has changed since then and so should the discussion.

[eridani]

26. Very true, but our ancestors had much shorter life expectancy also

They were likely to be killed in an accident or by a contagious disease well before any hypothetical time of onset. As long as that was the case, insulin resistance was a very useful trait.

One of the big hazards of gestational diabetes in our society is the risk of giving birth to a really large baby. In the famines common in the olden days, such women would be the only women in the tribe who could give birth to normal weight babies.

[treestar]

14. Leads to more jobs for health care workers

Well supposedly.

Anti depressants cause it too.

And then there is the diet industry. LOL.

[applegrove]

16. Yes psychiatric drugs do cause obesity. I live that. But I also

have some very bad habits. And I'm not working out like I should. Point is if you can decrease obesity in any way it is a win win for both the person, their family and society.

[Snotcicles]

17. Is Canada any closer to approving "Lorcaserin" to aid in weight loss? nt

[applegrove]

19. Don't know. I'm trying to do it by walking. Hurt my hip a bit

last week so have not moved much lately. I think drugs are scary when they first come out. "Side effects may include death" is advised in too many ads for new medicines. I'll wait till it becomes mainstream before trying it. Anyhow. My struggle is to have healthy habits before anything else.

[Snotcicles]

22. "Lose It" has a free app. for caloric intake tracking. very cool. Good luck. nt

[applegrove]

24. Thanks.

[L0oniX]

18. The massive epidemic that dare not be spoken about.

[Runningdawg]

25. Obesity will continue to rise

as long as there is money to be made off misery. Until we treat start treating obesity as the eating/obsessive compulsive disorder it is, the problem is only going to get worse.
Your child acts out, won't pay attention in class? Here, have some drugs. Sure it's addictive, but in this case, addiction is preferable. We have to make sure your child becomes a productive member of society.
Overweight? No drugs for you. You might become addicted!!!! Or it might just cure the problem and THEN the multi million dollar weight loss business will be out of business, we can't have that.
What's that you have a serious medical issue that can be corrected with a relatively simple and inexpensive surgery? No surgery for you - you don't deserve the same chance at life as others. You have no impulse control.
Oh wait, it's your liver? and you ruined it drinking? Well that's different you poor thing, here, have a new liver.
Speaking as a retired nurse obesity discrimination is a pandemic in the medical community. You may think this is funny, but I have seen a ME try and say a man who got hit by a truck died from morbid obesity, because if he wasn't so fat, he could have moved. The medical community disgusts me on so many levels these days....

[eridani]

30. Obsessive compulsive disorder?? That's pure bullshit

It's a genetic condition that used to be useful and is no longer so. If you are insulin resistant and don't want to be fat, you have to commit to lifelong hunger and making time for a lot of extra physical activity that is no longer a normal part of most peoples' live.. What we have is an epidemic of people refusing to do that.