January 2, 2010 Bobby Caina Calvan, Sacramento Bee
Weve resolved to eat better, lace up the running shoes, shed a few pounds, quit smoking and lead healthier lives.
If we could keep our promises beyond the first weekend of the new year, perhaps our health care system wouldnt be as bloated as it is.
Indeed, some of the responsibility for health care costs sits squarely on the shoulders of consumers who make unhealthy choices – by supersizing meals, quenching thirst with sugar-laden sodas, filling lungs with tobacco and taking a less active role in …

By David Sacher, former surgeon general. September 28, 2009
Nearly a decade ago, Dr. David Satcher, 16th surgeon general of the United States, declared that overweight and obesity “have reached epidemic proportions” in the 2001 Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity. The evidence base has steadily improved about how to prevent overweight and obesity, as well as how to help people successfully lose weight. Health system reform can and should be based on this evidence of best practices.
Today, by working together in a nonpartisan way …

JULIE STEENHUYSEN, REUTERS
Obesity-related diseases account for nearly 10 percent of all U.S. medical spending or an estimated $147 billion a year, researchers said on Monday.
They said U.S. obesity rates rose 37 percent between 1998 and 2006, driving an 89 percent increase in spending on treatments for obesity-related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and other conditions.
Obese people spent an extra $1,429 per year or 42 percent more for medical care in 2006 than did normal weight people, with most of that spent on prescription drugs, the researchers said.
The study, …

AMY D’ONOFRIO AND CAROLYN LOCHHEAD, Hearst Newspapers August 17, 2009Obesity is the elephant in the room of health care reform, a public health catastrophe that kills well more than 100,000 Americans a year, costs New York more than $6.1 billion a year in medical services and promises to shorten U.S. life expectancy for the first time since the Civil War.
Whatever Washington does this year to try to lower medical spending almost certainly will be swamped by the nation’s rising weight. Obesity lurks as a cause behind the top chronic illnesses — …

Study published August 4 in International Journal of Obesity that found that removing removing television advertising of high-fat and/or high-sugar food and beverages to Australian children could increase health and save health care money.
The cost-effectiveness of removing television advertising of high-fat and/or high-sugar food and beverages to Australian children.
Objective: To model the health benefits and cost-effectiveness of banning television (TV) advertisements in Australia for energy-dense, nutrient-poor food and beverages during children’s peak viewing times.Methods:Benefits were modelled as changes in body mass index (BMI) and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) saved. Intervention costs …

(The Denver Post, August 2, 2009)
The extra medical costs that severely overweight people add to health care spending are ballooning, a new study shows.
While Congress works with President Obama to reform health care, the question of what to do about the obesity epidemic in our country should be front and center in the debate. As the study by RTI International documents, as much as $147 billion every year is spent on obesity-related ailments and conditions.
Just over 10 years ago, medical spending related to obesity was $78.5 billion. Now that’s super-sizing.
“There …

Obese Americans spend about 42 percent more on health care than normal-weight Americans, according to a new study based on 2006 figures.
Medical spending on obesity-related conditions is estimated to have reached $147 billion a year in 2008, according to the new study, published online on Monday in the journal Health Affairs. That figure represents almost 10 percent of all medical spending, the study found.
Obese Americans spend about $1,429 more on health care each year than the roughly $3,400 spent by normal-weight Americans.
Most of the excess spending is for prescription drugs …