Obesity costs rise 87 percent in a decade, study finds

Medical spending for obesity is estimated to have reached $147 billion in 2008, an 87 percent increase in the past decade, according to a government-sponsored study.

Each obese patient cost health insurers and government programs $1,429, or 42 percent, more a year than a normal-weight individual in 2006, according to the analysis of health expenses released by the journal Health Affairs. In 1998, the medical costs of obesity were estimated to have reached $78.5 billion.

President Barack Obama has said his administration wants to control the rising cost of health care in part through preventive medicine programs, such as those to help people lose weight or quit smoking. Medicare, the government-run program for the elderly and disabled, spent $7 billion on obesity-related prescriptions drugs, such as those to treat diabetes, high cholesterol and blood pressure, the study said.

"Although health reform may be necessary to address health inequities and rein in rising health spending, real savings are more likely to be achieved through reforms that reduce the prevalence of obesity and related risk factors, including poor diet and inactivity," said the study's authors.

The incidence of obesity, a major cause of diabetes, stroke and heart attacks, has more than doubled in the past 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 32 percent of American adults are obese, according to data from the CDC's Web site. A person is obese if his or her body mass index is greater than 30, or about 186 pounds for a person who is five feet, six inches tall.

Without obesity, spending by the government-funded Medicaid program for the poor would be 8.5 percent less and Medicare would be lowered by 11.8 percent, the study said.

Researchers analyzed data between 1998 and 2006 from the government-sponsored Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, which collects information on health services that Americans use, how frequently they use the services and the cost.