Obesity-tied insurance costs soar

Study charts tenfold spending hike since '87





By Nanci Hellmich

USA Today





Private health insurance spending on illnesses related to obesity has increased more than tenfold since 1987, according to the first research to quantify the trend.



The growth in obesity has fueled a dramatic increase in the amount spent treating diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol and other weight-related illnesses, says the study, which is published today in the online journal Health Affairs.



Overall, employers and privately-insured families spent $36.5 billion on obesity-related illnesses in 2002, up from $3.6 billion in 1987. That's an increase from 2 percent of total health care spending on obesity in 1987 to 11.6 percent in 2002, the most recent year for which data are available. It cost an average of $1,244 more a year in 2002 to treat an obese person than it did a healthy-weight person. That's up from $272 in 1987.



And the obesity problem is "only going to get worse," says lead author Kenneth Thorpe, chairman of the department of health policy and management at Emory University, Atlanta. "The costs are up because so many more Americans are obese and because they're being more aggressively treated for weight-related illnesses."



About 31 percent of U.S. adults are obese, or 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight. That's up from 23 percent in the late 1980s and 15 percent in the late 1970s.



The study comes at a time when businesses, the government and consumers are struggling with soaring health care costs. "Most of what is going on now to try to control health care spending is missing the target," Thorpe says. "Companies are tweaking co-pays and talking about health care savings accounts when really they need to redirect their focus to reduce the prevalence of obesity among children and workers."



Thorpe and his colleagues analyzed national surveys of about 14,000 people from 1987 and 2002. The data included health care spending, medical conditions and trips to the doctor, hospital and pharmacy.



Among the findings:



• The percentage of obese people being treated for high cholesterol, mental disorders and upper gastrointestinal disorders increased 10 percentage points from 1987 to 2002. The percentage treated for hypertension stayed constant at 23.4 percent, but only 4.9 percent of healthy-weight people were treated for hypertension in 2002.



• The increase in adult-onset diabetes contributed to a 64 percent rise in diabetes treatment from 1987 to 2002.



• About 25 percent of the extremely obese (80 or more pounds overweight) were being treated for six or more conditions in 2002, compared with 14 percent in 1987.



Thorpe's findings add to growing evidence that extra pounds increase medical costs. A study last year by RTI International in Raleigh, N.C., and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that obese and overweight Americans racked up about $75 billion in weight-related medical bills in 2003. Because Medicare and Medicaid cover much of this, taxpayers pay about half the total, the study found.



An author of that study, health economist Eric Finkelstein, says the new research shows "we are getting better at finding effective treatments for obesity-related illnesses. But it comes at a significant cost."