Obesity is crippling the US, but there are solutions

By STEPHANIE TILENIUS Well over a third of Americans are obese — and the percentage keeps growing at a staggering rate. Over the last twenty years, obesity prevalence grew from 30% to 42% of the US population and rates of severe obesity nearly doubled. If we don’t make serious changes to our healthcare system, it’s scary to think where we’re headed in a few short years. The fact is, obesity is far from a cosmetic condition. It can be a devastating disease and was classified as such by the American Medical Association in 2013. Obesity is the leading risk factor for deadly diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and at least 13 types of cancer. If we don’t stop the obesity epidemic in its tracks now, we’re in for a world of hurt. People’s lives, the healthcare system, and, by extension, the US economy could be headed for collapse if we continue to ignore it. Cardiometabolic conditions like obesity, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes cost the US healthcare system upwards of $500 billion a year in healthcare costs and another $147 billion in lost workforce productivity for heart disease and stroke alone. And yet private and government-sponsored health plans are dragging their feet to address obesity head on. They know most people jump from health plan to health plan every few years, so they’re willing to take the chance that their members with obesity won’t develop high-cost complications soon enough to justify treatment now. And yet t...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Health Policy GLP-1 Obesity Stephanie Tilenius vida health Source Type: blogs