The latest obesity rankings are in, and "not a single state shows signs of slimming," according to the Associated Press. The percentage of obese adults rose in 23 states and declined in none.
What's worse, in every single state "the rate of obesity is higher among 55- to 64-year-olds — the oldest boomers — than among today's 65-and-beyond." That means a big increase in obese Medicare patients is looming, which could spell disaster for the already financially crippled program.
According to the article, the average obese person costs Medicare an additional $1,400 to $6,000 per year. And contrary to previous studies which suggested that obese people may actually die sooner and cost the system less over their lives, new data indicates that "they live nearly as long but are much sicker for longer," requiring much more costly treatments along the way.
It seems to me that our "health care crisis" is really a "health crisis" - and more specifically it may be a "fat crisis" since being obese (or even overweight) can be a root cause of the myriad of health problems that plague Americans and our health care system.
To be sure, being fat isn't technically the problem - many fat people are healthy just as many thin people get sick - but the fact is that obesity is a direct cause of a myriad of health conditions and other problems, and there are quite frankly better things our tax dollars could be going towards besides dialysis treatments and knee replacements for millions of obese seniors.
If Americans as a group would shape up a little bit, our health care crisis may just solve itself. There is more than one way to lower health care costs - we can authorize the government to take control and use its massive scale to force doctors and drug companies to lower their prices (like the insurance companies and Medicare currently do), or we can all just get a bit healthier and require fewer treatments and drugs.
Of course that is much easier said than done. Any ideas?
July 1, 2009
Obesity Continues to Rise, Medicare Braces for Cost
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
20 comments:
Might be cheaper just to give tax breaks to Americans for going to the Gym. Make Gym memberships tax deductible. (Of course, require that people go to the gym in order to get the tax credit, not just pay).
Not sure if they will let you expense your high end Gym though : ) Maybe the Y lol.
Eat a cheeseburger, buy a house you can't afford, everyone else will pick up the slack, right?
I like the other Tom's idea! Even better would be tax breaks for companies that build state of the art gyms on their campuses. I'm going to go the other way though...
Introduce a fat tax. If you are over a certain BMI you pay more medicare taxes. The rate also increases the higher your BMI. Why should I, someone who eats healthy and exercises, pay the same as someone who is too lazy to be healthy?
I know there are a million logistical problems with this, but something has to be done and the only way to get people fired up anymore is by targeting their money.
The gym is not going to cut it. An hour working out strenuously at the gym can be undone by two big bites of a decadently-constructed brownie upon arriving home. Food is the problem more than inactivity is the problem.
This is a deep-seated problem that has to do with biology, human nature, economics, and our food supply. As long as a myriad of calorie-dense food is easily available (and relatively cheap) no inroads will be made in reversing the obesity debacle that our country has become.
I wrote a post on similar topic. Take a look and let me know what you think:
Health Care Crisis Is Actually Not A Health Care Crisis
@444,
I agree with your comment about the brownie, but I think it's equal parts food and laziness. People eating these dense foods are too lazy to buy healthy foods to cook. It's that laziness prevents them from exercising too.
@ Tom (just above) - It's easy to say that Americans are lazy - and they are - but the way our society is set up in most areas just does not support high activity levels. People in other parts of the world don't avoid obesity problems because all their citizens go to the gym - they do it because their citizens have vastly different diets and move around a whole lot more in everyday life.
It's easy to say "get off the couch," but the average American isn't simply a lazy couch potato - he's spending nearly 2 hours a day behind the wheel of a car, 10+ hours a day at work, and is lucky to get 7 hours of sleep after all the miscellaneous errands and kid activities they're trying to squeeze in (which usually involve driving and sitting and watching - not walking and participating).
Even if a person DOES make time to exercise for an hour a day, as 444 points out it can be undone in about 5 seconds with a serving of fast food or something out of a wrapper instead of out of the ground for dinner.
People in other countries still eat real food. Even coca-cola makes different formulas for other countries because they demand real sugars instead of high fructose corn syrup. Diet is the problem. Even many celebrities admit they don't work out - they just strenuously control their diets. Everyone I know who's ever lost weight did so through diet far more than through exercise.
It's so simple, yet so hard. We're all addicted to sugar and caffeine and stuff our bodies with all sorts of drugs for all sorts of "conditions" and our metabolisms are screwed and our hormones are out of control and we just keep getting fatter. I say tax fake food - tax soda (even diet soda), tax artificial sweeteners, tax added sodium, tax high fructose corn syrup, tax trans fats, tax everything we know is BAD for us but that we continue to consume because it's so cheap.
It's definitely not equal parts food and laziness. Going to the gym does very little in terms of weight loss; it's all about portion size. Watch an old movie (from the 60s or before) and notice the size of the foods and drinks that they consume. You'll be amazed, and will have no more questions about why Americans today are so overweight.
I also think that we need to critically look at our overall lifestyles in America, and I'm not just talking about diet and exercise. Americans work longer hours and have fewer vacation days than any other tertiary-sector nation in the world today. We have to worry about money (retirement, college, healthcare), our kids (no low-cost, high-quality day care), our health (again, no free healthcare) - all of these are taken care of for citizens in other Western nations. If we were working few hours for decent salaries (which, adjusted for inflation, have been stagnant in the U.S. since the 1970s) and didn't have to worry so damn much about everything, maybe we wouldn't need a piece of cheesecake for comfort/relaxation. Maybe we would have the energy to go for a walk. Just a thought.
Also, Meg, you fail to point out that recent studies suggest that people who are slightly overweight (not obese) actually live longer and show more resistance to certain diseases than their "normal weight" peers. You always amaze me in your narrow-mindedness and lack of insight into so many topics.
Take corn syrup and hydrogenated oil products off the market and all your problems are solved.
No... sorry guys, I don't buy any of that. We can't blame this on society when your weight is your responsiblity. Don't also try and tell me that Americans don't have enough time to exercise. It takes, at most, 20 minutes to run (even walk) 2 miles. Are you telling me that you don't have 20 minutes to spare everyday? I don't buy that for a second. You choose not to do it. I also don't want to hear about portion size (you control that), high fructose corn syrup (fine in moderation), trans fat, all that stuff, because you control what goes into your body.
The Average American is the guy who drives around in the Wal-Mart parking lot for 10 minutes waiting for a front row spot.
I'm not talking about hitting the gym for an hour a day, although that would be awesome if everyone did, I'm talking about making small choices. Take the stairs, walk from the back of the parking lot. Instead of grabbing McDonalds, cook up some chicken breasts and frozen veggies at home, it literally takes 10 minutes. So with the 2 mile walk, we are up to 30 minutes a day to cook healthy and exercise.
Let's get back to having a little personal responsibility and stop trying to blame society, food, time, kids, healthcare, and money for our fattness.
@ Tom - I think you are right that it is all about personal responsibility, but I have to disagree with your comments about society not playing a role. I also disagree that twenty minutes of exercise and making small choices to take the stairs will make any difference to the average person.
Take me for example. In college I had to walk around a lot and stayed in shape without trying much, but in the few years since graduating I've become about 10 pounds overweight. I never worked out much, but I eat healthy natural foods for the most part (albiet in too large portions). I always take the stairs, walk whenever possible, and pace around when on the phone to try to get in a bit of extra activity. Still I remain steadily 10 pounds overweight.
Two months ago I joined a new gym and quadroupled the amount of time I spend working out. I went from one hour a week to FIVE, and I've kept it up steadily. My diet has stayed about the same, or improved if anything. Guess how much weight I've lost? NONE.
I'm not discouraged because I enjoy the workouts, but I've come to realize it's pretty much ALL about my diet. If you read about it, many celebrities also claim that they don't work out to stay thin; rather they strictly control their diets. Same with foreigners. They just don't eat the same as most Americans.
And while it's easy to say "choose fruits and veggies," the vast majority of "food" we are marketed and sold and surrounded by is junk. It's really hard to consciously control your environment and consciously choose healthy every day all day in the face of so much "other" which is simply easier and tastes good.
@ Anon - There are a lot of things I "failed to point out" because this is a blog post (which by definition should be short) about obesity and its affect on health care costs, not a thorough study of all things related to health and weight.
Besides not relating to my topic, I'm not convinced that your point is true. I've seen it mentioned but have also seen studies which indicate the contrary.
I agree with folks that say government should use tax break incentives and other measures to encourage healthy behavior. I get a $120 reimbursement per year from Blue Cross for accumulating 120 workouts in the year.
Also, a recent move to force restaurants to post calories on menus and menu boards is great- and currently, they must provide brochures detailing calories.
A big part of American obesity is cluelessness about what we put in our body. When I started counting calories in order to shed a few pounds, I was seriously stunned to see how many calories were in particular foods. I was consuming about 3000 calories a day, and even though I was active, it was way too much. Knowing exactly, exactly how many calories are in that morning muffin makes me choose a bowl of cereal instead.
In general, there needs to be a culture shift in thinking about activity and eating, and the government should continue to incentivize this thinking as often as possible.
MEG,
I am surprised you haven't lost weight after increasing your workouts. It's similar to personal finance, burn more than you consume, which is why I think it's equal parts activity and diet. That begs the question, has something else in your diet changed... are you eating more because you are using more energy? I've witnessed that personally... family members start new exercise plans, then gradually start eating more (even eating more healthy food) to refuel, and the net effect is 0. Obviously I don't know if that's your situation, but it's something to watch out for.
As for the 20 minutes of exercise and activity a day... if you are used to doing nothing, that 20 minutes will make a big difference in the long run. It will also eventually lead to 30 minutes, then 40, then 50...
I still have to disagree with society playing a factor. It's true that fast and junk food saturates the market, but it is still your conscious choice to eat healthy instead of "other". I read this: "It's really hard to consciously control your environment and consciously choose healthy every day all day in the face of so much "other" which is simply easier and tastes good." and, to me, it still sounds like placing blame on anything other than the individual.
As I said, it's your own personal responsiblity to make healthy choices.
Not really. There is no way to really control the weight in this country. The majority of people are overweight. Thus will it ever really pass that if you are overweight you should pay more?
@ Tom - I've specifically been on the lookout for increased calorie consumption because of my boost in energy and workouts, and I don't think it's happened. In fact I've missed more than a few calorie-binge happy hours/dinners because of my new workout schedule which I otherwise would attend. I'm sure slowly it'll start to come off, but my body may still be adjusting to the new lifestyle.
Also, I'm not trying to move blame from the individual to "society;" society is after all just the cumulative of individual decisions and values. But it plays a role. In America you have to be conscious of healthy things and actively choose them over and over - it's like having to drive to the bank and make a deposit each day/week/month instead of being able to automate your savings. In other societies, health is automated. It's still a choice, but it's a lot simpler one.
For instance, when I lived in Spain one summer during college, I dropped 15 pounds without trying. I still ate whatever I wanted and drank freely and worked out very little - but portions were smaller and food ingredients were whole and simple, and I was able to (and had to) walk more, etc. I didn't have to FOCUS on making healthy choices and analyzing labels and struggling to motivate myself to get exercise. It just happened.
The other Tom. You can't just assume everyone is lazy. The majority yes, but there are people with medical issues and/or conditions. that prevent them from being able to lose weight.
You just can't assume it's as easy as you make it out to be either : ) It has merit, but how do you account for those who are unable to lose weight? Still tax them?
This is a very multi-layered subject. If you watch Food, Inc. or read Fast Food Nation or Omnivore's Dilemma you see that there are big powers at play that have a stack in keeping people fat. Incentives for the gym is good but how about get the big lobbyists out of governing agencies. People who aren't informed are consuming things that are extremely unhealthy for them and they don't even know it. The only insurance against obesity is diet and exercise. But, people need to inform themselves. If we demand better the market will respond. It will lead to more choices and better food.
Jerry
@ Jerry - I totally agree. The food lobbyists are a huge part of the problem I've been wanting to see that movie Food Inc too! I'll have to make a point to do that soon...
Post a Comment