Obesity noted as America’s most pressing health problem
It doesn’t really seem like news to those of us who follow the staggering weight gain and associated health problems that have been plaguing America for years, but a new study from the United Health Foundation, Partnership for Prevention and American Public Health Association says that obesity rates could rise to 40 percent of the population by 2018, and health spending on the problem will rise to around $344 billion, four times the current rate of spending.
That means that 21 percent of healthcare dollars will be spent on obesity and related ailments, up from an already significant 9 percent today.
Colorado will be healthiest, but not by much
The report predicts that more than half of all the residents of Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Dakota will be obese in 2018, and Colorado, long ranked as the slimmest state in the nation, will be the only state in the union with an obesity rate below 30 percent.
In all, about 103 million Americans are expected to be obese by 2018, and with that rise should come a significant increase in the number of people with diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure and some cancers that have been linked to excess weight.
While the nation has made progress in cutting the rates of other preventable health problems like cancer and heart disease, there’s been no progress in limiting the rising rate of obesity, the report says. Like tobacco use has been a major challenge in the past, obesity is becoming the most important public health problem the nation faces.
Even though the United States spends more on healthcare per capita than any other country, 30 nations outrank us in terms of life expectancy, and we have the highest death rates from treatable conditions of 19 industrialized nations studied.
The United States ranked dead last in terms of health when compared to Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and Britain.
Congress needs to make prevention a priority
Because of the huge spike in health costs obesity is expected to bring about, Kenneth Thorpe from the Emory School of Public Health says Congress needs to put obesity at the top of its agenda if it has any hope of controlling healthcare costs.
He says Americans need to see that obesity is a dangerous health problem that can and does kill people, that the stigma of obesity doesn’t negate the need to recognize and treat it, that employers need to play more of a role in getting and keeping their workers healthy and that the healthcare system needs to treat obesity like a preventable medical condition rather than something seemingly inevitable.
(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)
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