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Obesity takes a toll on physical health, but it also places a financial burden on the health care delivery system to treat increased illness as a result of obesity-related health challenges. Erik Finklestein, Ph.D and others have estimated that as much as $75 billion dollars of our public health cost bill was attributable to obesity in 2003, about half of which was publically financed.
Three factors contribute to the increasing burden of treating obesity; the increase in the number of people that are obese, the increasing cost of treatments specific to obesity-related illnesses and the demographic shift in population with a general trend for older individuals to be obese. The first cause, an increasing number of obese individuals, is the cause that is most amenable to change - individuals, communities, policymakers and health care providers can develop individual and community interventions that slow the rise in obesity.
At the national level, in 10 years, the U.S. is expected to spend over $343 billion on health care costs that are attributable to obesity if rates continue to increase at their current levels. Individual state estimates are contained in Table 5.
In 2018, the cost of obesity at a national level is projected to be $1,425 per person, rising from $361 per adult today; direct health costs for obesity will be four times as much in ten years as they are today. Cost of obesity parallels the prevalence of obesity and shows that per-capita costs are highest in Oklahoma, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri and Mississippi and lowest in Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Table 2: Lowest Expenditures: Obesity-Attributable Health Care Spending ($/Adult)
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Obesity-Attributable Health Care Spending ($/Adult)* |
|
|
2008 |
2013 |
2018 |
|
Colorado |
$235 |
$378 |
$864 |
|
Connecticut |
$279 |
$455 |
$1,052 |
|
Virginia |
$327 |
$492 |
$1,053 |
|
Massachusetts |
$296 |
$482 |
$1,119 |
|
Rhode Island |
$293 |
$491 |
$1,163 |
*Mid-point estimates
Table 3: Highest Expenditures: Obesity-Attributable Health Care Spending ($/Adult)
|
Obesity-Attributable Health Care Spending ($/Adult)* |
|
|
2008 |
2013 |
2018 |
|
Oklahoma |
$417 |
$747 |
$1,906 |
|
Ohio |
$433 |
$755 |
$1,877 |
|
Kentucky |
$433 |
$750 |
$1,836 |
|
Missouri |
$450 |
$761 |
$1,834 |
|
Mississippi |
$441 |
$738 |
$1,757 |
*Mid-point estimates
See Economic Cost of Obesity for all states.
Download full report at Get Reports.
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