As the end of the year approaches, it's normal for us to reflect back on our own unresolved resolutions, news bites, and on what's affected us – more or less. For those in the health care biz, the possibilities were endless. Admittedly new to writing about this field myself, I can't help but think about the hell this industry has been through—economic malaise, reform woes, higher health costs—it's affected everyone from the broker to the consumer.
But what has me scratching my head is this little tidbit: Our biggest article this year (pun intended) was not about the economy or health care mandates or the Supreme Court's spring case lineup. It was about overweight people.
It's a fact. The article readers clicked on most this year was 10 fattest states in America—which was a simple look at the states with the highest rates of adult obesity.
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While a major gist of that article was (honestly) pictures of overweight people, we did spell out some major issues with the help of a few numbers. For instance, Mississippi has a 34.4 percent obesity rate—the heaviest burden on a state.
Fact is, I've been reporting on a number of alarming stats this year. At a glimpse: More than one in four adults are considered obese; the U.S. spends roughly $150 billion a year on obesity-related health care; 2011 is the first year when no state had an obesity prevalence under 20 percent; and maybe worst of all—kids are now involved as one-third of them are overweight or obese.
And new data from eHealth reveals obese people pay a whopping 22.6 percent higher monthly premiums for individual health insurance.
So just why are we so obsessed with fat people? Truth is, though we've got more than enough to worry about in a system with as much scotch tape holding it together than Christmas gifts, obesity shows yet another fundamental flaw of the health care system. Lifestyle accounts for so much of the direct cost, but docs often prescribe pill after pill for problems relating to the root cause (high cholesterol, high blood pressure, sleep apnea) but not addressing it. Sure, docs want to help but they don't have the time—and many also don't have enough prevention or education discipline.
But even if they did, insurance companies rarely pay for services known to address these problems, such as nutritional counseling or behavioral therapy. So therein lies the problem (well, one of 'em)—efforts to shrink America's waistline will be thwarted and health care costs will remain exponential.
But then again (and maybe I'm just feeling hopeful because it's Christmas) maybe the reason we're so interested in obesity is because we can prevent it and prevent the increasing costs and prevent this ridiculous flaw of the system.
If health care reform goes on as planned, there's not much we do about that. If the presidential candidate you absolutely don't want to see in the White House is elected (or re-elected), there's not much we can do. But obesity? That's an item you can (likely) do something about. In this case—and in general—lack of responsibility penalizes all of us. And that's a good New Year's conclusion, if not something you can work around for that New Year's resolution you've been thinking about.
Now, I've got some Christmas cookies with my name on them…
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