Obesity and Health System Reform: Private vs. Public Responsibility - Len M. Nichols with Tony Yang
Publications Thursday, September 15th, 2011Introduction:
The obesity epidemic is not only impairing the health of millions of Americans but also giving rise to billions of added dollars in health care spending. Climbing rates of obesity over the past decades are one of the predominant determinants behind the surging progression of health care expenses in the United States. Moreover, the less fit and less productive U.S. workforce has gradually eroded the nation’s industrial competitiveness. Since the early 1970s, adult obesity rates have doubled and childhood obesity rates have more than tripled[i],while health expenditures have risen two percentage points faster than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)[ii], burgeoning from 8.8 percent in 1980 [iii]to a projected 17.9 percent in 2011.[iv]4 Studies analyze that greater than a quarter of America’s health care expenses are attributed to obesity[v]. The stunning growth in obesity has been imputed for 20 to 30 percent of the increase in health care costs since the late 1970s. If the proportion of obese population had stayed unchanged, then health care expenditures in America would be approximately 10 percent less on a per capita average than they are today.[vi]
[i] U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, Health, United States, 2003, Atlanta, GA, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2003.
[ii] Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “The Long-Term Fiscal Outlook Is Bleak: Restoring Fiscal Sustainability Will Require Major Changes to Programs, Revenues, and the Nation’s Health Care System,” available at <http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=2215> (last visited June 24, 2011).
[iii] Kaiser Family Foundation, “Health Care Spending in the United States and OECD Countries,” available at <http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm010307oth.cfm> (last visited June 24, 2011).
[iv] A. Sisko, C. Truffer, and S. Smith et al., “Health Spending Projections through 2018: Recession Effects Add Uncertainty to the Outlook,” Health Affairs Web Exclusive (February 24, 2009), available at <http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/28/2/w346.full.html> (last visited June 29, 2011).
[v] U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Preventing Obesity and Chronic Diseases through Good Nutrition and Physical Activity,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, available at <http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/publications/factsheets/Prevention/pdf/obesity.pdf> (last visited June 29, 2011); L. H. Anderson et al., “Health Care Charges Associated with Physical Inactivity, Overweight, and Obesity,” Preventing Chronic Disease 2, no. 4 (October 2005): 1-12.
[vi] Congressional Budget Office, Technology, Change, and the Growth of Health Care Spending, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., January 2008; Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, “An Unhealthy Truth: Rising Rates of Chronic Disease and the Future of Health in America,” available at <http://c0573212.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/UnhealthyTruth.ppt> (last visited April 5, 2011).
“Obesity and Health System Reform: Private vs. Public Responsibility,” Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics v. 39 #3 (Fall 2011) pp. 380-86, with Y. Tony Yang.
Click here to view this article.
