The Mounting Costs of Obesity On The National Health Care Budget
Obesity or corpulence, is malnutrition more prevalent in developed countries. This health condition is like a spider’s web. Once you’re obese, you’re at risk of a variety of other health conditions, mental and physical.
It causes type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, depression etc. This is the sad cost of obesity. This translates to health care expenditures that are directly and indirectly caused by obesity.
In the United States, an estimated cost of obesity is 12% of the national health care budget, studied by the World Watch Institute and the World Bank. In a 1999 Lewin Group study commissioned by the American Obesity Association, the direct health care cost of obesity reached $102.2 billion. It shows a rise from 5.7% of the national health care budget directed to obesity (from a 1994 study) to the 9.8% of health expenses from the 1999 Lewin… Read More…
