Disturbing Data on Obesity

This table comes from a January, 2008 report from the Congressional Budget Office on technological innovation and health care costs, and it tells a troubling tale. Between 1987 and 2001, the percentage of obese adults in the US increased from 12.3 to 20.7, but to make matters worse, controlling for inflation, during the same period per capita health care costs for obese adults increased by 50 percent. Health care costs have increased for all weight categories, but the increase from 1987 to 2001 is a direct function of weight. The lowest increase is for the underweight group, and the highest increase is for the morbidly obese group. The cost of health care for the 1.3 percent of Americans who are morbidly obese has gone up almost $2000.