A couple of weeks ago I attended an excellent presentation given by a nutrition specialist from our local hospital. The presenter was speaking about the dangers of obesity in general and type 2 diabetes specifically. I was shocked by the statistics she shared. She stated that 79 million Americans are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and that one in four young Americans are rejected for military service because they are overweight. I thought the numbers were a little sensational until I surveyed the people in the room and realized our audience closely matched the figures (no pun intended) our presenter provided.
I don’t think there is any disagreement that America’s health care prices are rising at an alarming rate. Both freedom-loving tea partiers and progressive leaning socialists agree that the cost of health care for Joe Six-Pack can’t increase much more without a complete system breakdown. While I will save my own solutions for reducing healthcare costs for a later blog, I will state here that: (1) obese patients will always cost more than patients who are not obese; and (2) obesity rates will continue to climb as long as someone other than obese Americans picks up the bill for obesity related ailments.
How expensive is an obese American compared to a non-obese American? According to Eric Finkelstein, director of the RTI Public Health Economics Program in Research Triangle Park, N.C., prescription drugs for obese Medicare patients is 72% higher than for non-obese Medicare patients. For all Americans, both young and old, the annual cost of treating overweight patients is $2800 higher than for their healthy weight peers, according to a study by Chad Meyerhoefer of Lehigh University that was recently published as a working paper (No. 16467) by the National Bureau of Economic Research. In 2010, it was estimated by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) that the medical cost to treat obesity alone is $168 billion annually. (This is 16.5% of America’s total annual health care expenditures). If medical costs weren't enough, obese employees cost American employers $73.1 billion annually in lost productivity due to missed work days as a result of illness. (Overweight employees are sick more often than their fit counterparts).
The frustration behind obesity is it is largely preventable. Unfortunately, federal regulations encourage obesity by forcing non-obese citizens and employers to pay for it. We can argue whether or not America is a socialist nation, but most Americans are forced to pool their health care costs with other Americans not of their choosing. Whether it is federally regulated health insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid, Americans have little choice about who they can share their health risks with. What this means is fit Americans, who pay the same taxes and health insurance premiums (but use less health care), are subsidizing overweight Americans who use more. This kind of a system is unsustainable.
The best way to solve America’s obesity problem is not more government regulation. We don’t need food police or a fitness czar to solve or national weight problem. Instead, we need to remove current laws that incent people to grow fat. The fastest and most effective way to encourage people to pursue healthy body weights is to allow Americans to choose their health insurance based on lifestyle choices. This will result in one of two positive outcomes: (1) overweight Americans will self-regulate their own body weights to make themselves more marketable to less expensive insurance pools; or (2) overweight Americans will pay for the additional risk their lifestyles bring to the insurance pool.
In America, citizens should be free to maintain whatever body weight they can personally afford. Being overweight should not be a crime; however, forcing fit Americans to pay for their neighbor’s unhealthy choices is thievery. The universe has an order that naturally encourages humans to make good choices, but man’s misguided efforts to control society from a central authority usually ends up destroying the very citizens it purports to assist. Freedom, not tyranny, will have the greatest positive impact on inspiring Americans to maintain healthy body weights. Any system that forces Americans against their will to pay for their neighbor’s poor choices will ultimately end in failure.
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