Summations Only

Yes it is.

quote:

---

"For Medicare, the costs of obesity are about 72 percent greater just for prescription drugs," Finkelstein said. An obese person on Medicare is going to pay $1,400 in drug costs more a year than a normal-weight person, he said.

​

"Today's report demonstrating the clear link between rising rates of obesity and increasing medical costs is alarming, but not unexpected," Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said in a statement. "Obesity is the driver of so many chronic conditions -- heart disease, diabetes, cancer -- that generate the exorbitant costs that are crushing our health-care system," she said.

​

"The only way to show real savings in health expenditures in the future is through efforts to reduce the prevalence of obesity and related health conditions," Finkelstein said.

---

You're a pretty smart dude, but that was some dumb shit right there.Cancer for the most part is unavoidable even for those with a healthy lifestyle? Wow! From the American Cancer Society:

quote:

---

American Cancer Society Guidelines on Nutrition and Physical Activity for Cancer Prevention

​

For most Americans who do not use tobacco, the most important cancer risk factors that can be changed are body weight, diet, and physical activity. One-third of all cancer deaths in the United States each year are linked to diet and physical activity, including being overweight or obese, while another third is caused by tobacco products.

​

Although our genes influence our risk of cancer, most of the difference in cancer risk between people is due to factors that are not inherited. Avoiding tobacco products, staying at a healthy weight, staying active throughout life, and eating a healthy diet may greatly reduce a person's lifetime risk of developing or dying from cancer. These same behaviors are also linked with a lower risk of developing heart disease and diabetes.

---

It's obvious to the experts that it is.- Oni

I don't have to do any of that. I just have to show you that we spend more per person on heathcare due to obesity...and I have. Now granted, it's not a black and white issue, there is some gray area.More on the subject here:

quote:

---

Spending per capita for obese adults exceeded spending for adults of normal weight by about 8 percent in 1987 and by about 38 percent in 2007. That increasing gap in spending between the two groups probably reflects a combination of factors, including changes in the average health status of the obese population and technological advances that offer new, costly treatments for conditions that are particularly common among obese individuals.

​

Because lower rates of obesity are associated with better health and lower health care spending per capita, there is considerable interest in devising policies that would reduce the fraction of the population that is obese. Research and experimentation in this area are ongoing, but the literature to date suggests that the challenges involved in reducing the prevalence of obesity are significant.

---

Nonsense! See link bellow. Obesity Not Aging Balloons Health Care Costs

quote:

---

Here are the facts: People who live an unusually long time tend to be healthier during their later years than shorter-lived people. That means longer-lived ones typically have lower medical costs during their golden years. This health dividend more than offsets the health care costs they accrue by outliving less healthy people.

​

The proof came out in 2003 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Analyzing Medicare data, federal researchers showed that elderly people in good shape at age 70 meaning they had no difficulties performing tasks of daily living such as walking and shopping could expect to live to 84.3, and after 70 they had average, cumulative health care bills totaling $136,000. In contrast, less healthy 70-year-olds with at least one limitation in daily-living activities could expect to live to 81.6 nearly three years less yet had cumulative medical bills of about $145,000 during their shorter remaining lives.

​

Unfortunately, there’s a giant exception to the rule that the longer life tends to be a healthier one: Obese people are living longer, thanks to factors such as cholesterol-cutting medicines (as is the entire population), but much of their extra time is spent in ill health, and as a result, their annual medical bills are some 42 percent higher than those of normal-weight people. In fact, the obesity epidemic has greatly increased the prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, but contrary to much of the media coverage on the epidemic, it has had little effect on mortality rates. As the title of one study put it, Smoking kills, obesity disables.

​

The CDC recently attributed $147 billion a year in U.S. medical costs to obesity over 9 percent of all U.S. health care spending. The nation’s obesity bills are just beginning to ramp up, though, and will soon be growing at a pace comparable to the increase in government medical spending due to the graying of boomers. Annual obesity-related health care costs are projected to rise by nearly $265 billion a year between 2008 and 2018, while annual Medicare expenditures are expected to increase by about $360 billion during the same period. And much of the rise in Medicare spending will go toward treating obesity-related diseases. As one researcher noted, when it comes to chronic health problems, being obese is roughly equivalent to being aged by 20 years.

---

I don't know what else to show you to sway you that obesity is hurting our healthcare cost and NOT aging. Now, and more so, at an alarming rate, in the future.- OniPS. I believe this is a Post of the Month, yes?

Yes, of course. I think I've proven well beyond a doubt that staying fit, eating well and exercising will reduce the overall cost of healthcare on ANY population. And will reduce the need for healthcare as they age - see the link in the post to Taq.Healthcare at that point will have it's normal issues, and not the nonsense that is happening now. And I'm saying that if the shift happens - lowering the obesity rate - the healthcare system in the US will work just fine. As it is now, we are so unhealthy that they have us by the balls. Do you think Big Pharm wants healthy Americans not using their drugs? Of course not. We are so dependent on the drugs to live that the prices can by anything they want; we will pay or die. That puts them in control.Look at Taq's chart in message 10 - the US and Finland are off by about $2,500 (cost per capita). That difference CAN be reduced by lowering obesity putting our healthcare system at a cost per capita equal to that of a universal healthcare country. With even more effeorts on healthier living, there is no doubt we can equal the cost to that of Canada, or even France. Reduce the obesity rate and the price per capita drops significantly.- OniPS. Post of the Month, please.

That's not my position. That is your spin on it.People will happily poison themselves, that is a fact, they do it everyday for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And snacks, lets not forget the snacks!Not all health problems of course, there is genetics and old age. But as I've shown reducing obesity will result in lower cost of healthcare per capita equal to that of countries with public healthcare.You can't tell people to do this, or ignore such things. All the government would have to do is render the sale of poison illegal. Me? I suggest yelling at the fatties. I don't see how it can be the answer to the problem when your country and those around you have an ever rising obesity rate.You have said public healthcare and even you guys can't stop the increase of obesity in your own population. So what you're suggesting we adopt is clearly failing you. Not much of a good example. Sure that's fine. A government entity that tackles the problem. Hmmm, we already have that. There is already an agency that's supposed to do that.You see, we already have functioning systems, they've just failed us. So rather than fix them, the argument shifts to public healthcare as though that will be the savior. There is no accountability. It's just on to the next program.But as we can see for your contries that do have public healthcare, you guys can't stop the obesity rate either. And why have you guys increased in obesity? Because of fast food. Yes. And the fat tax has also failed in your countries to solve the ever increasing obesity rate.Any other suggestions? Yes, I'm asking the already existing government agency that does this to do their fucking job. But they don't listen.- OniEdited by onifre, : No reason given.

I would but then you'd call it a hate crime. Haven't you heard what's in fast food? Fat and sugar are good for you, but those things as a natural product do NOT exist in fast food. It's processed garbage, with zero nutritional value. There's hydrogenated vegetable oil, saturated fats, gums, sugar substitutes, monosodium glutamate, high fructose corn syrup, hormone fed processed beef and eggs, hormone fed chicken, food coloring, preservatives, trans fats, etc.Just look at the ingredients for eggs at Mc Donalds. You would think it's just eggs, right?

quote:

---

Their pasteurized whole eggs have sodium acid pyrophosphate, citric acid, and monosodium phosphate (all added to preserve color), and nisin, a preservative. To top it off, the eggs are prepared with liquid margarine: liquid soybean oil, water, partially hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils (trans fats), salt, hydrogenated cottonseed oil (trans fat), soy lecithin, mono- and diglycerides, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate (preservatives), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, and beta carotene (color).

---

It's a poisonous cocktail. I've read plenty to suggest it hasn't and ends up simply hurting the poor. US Food and Drug AdministrationAs their moto goes: Protecting and Promoting Your HealthYeahhhh riggghhhhttttt!!!- Oni

Of course it's for profit... they profit from an unhealthy population. Where is the most unhealthy population in the world? The US is the most obese and has the most health problems. So then where would it make sense to have a for profit healthcare system? In the US if you're a business man.If the population began to get healthier, then there is less to profit from. At that point it would make sense to have a public healthcare system that is supported with taxes. Yes we are. As a whole the more obese, unhealthy people, who then grow old - living longer, unhealthier lives due to medicine (which is profited from) - make the system easy to profit from and a target for those looking to exploit it.- Oni

How many times do I have to be right around here? Fatty Fat Fats are at it again, ruining the healthcare in the US like I said they would. God damn fatbodies.Let me quote it:

quote:

---

The fastest growing public health challange for the US.

---

Coming soon to a Europe near you.I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. I'll expect eveyone to concede in this thread soon.- Oni