Obesity Insurance Premiums Keep Going Up
February 2011
There are many arguments out there that seek to explain the rising costs of
health coverage. There's medical inflation, a growing population, the toll of cigarette smoking, the bad economy, and finally, obesity.
In the last 40 years America has witnessed a very rapid growth in obesity. Right now 1 out of 6 kids is considered obese, and up to 1 in 3 adults is obese.
As a result,
obesity insurance is costly, especially if you're trying to get coverage on the
individual health insurance market. It isn't uncommon for obese people to be denied health coverage altogether.
The high cost of obesity insurance, and its unavailability, is due to the high odds that an obese person will need more expensive medical care. Medical expenditures related to
obesity cost around $150 billion dollars a year, more than cigarette smoking. Around 300,000 people die every year due to complications of obesity.
In purely economic terms, insuring the obese is probably going to cost insurance companies a lot of money.
But denying health coverage to the men and women who need it most isn't solving any problems either. In fact, those people who have coverage and go to their yearly checkups are more likely to get help with obesity. Spending time speaking to doctors and other medical personnel can help obese people better understand their options.
Facts on:
Obesity Insurance
Did you know...
Overweight and obese men and women with health coverage are less likely to end up in the emergency room?
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And those who can't get obesity insurance often end up in the emergency room when they need medical treatment. This is costly for everyone involved.
Some insurance companies cover treatments for obesity - including surgeries and medications - as a means of incentivizing people to lose weight and minimize health care costs early on. Others will absorb some of the cost of a gym membership for the same reason.
Currently there is much discussion regarding obesity and how best to manage the problem. Taxes on junk food and soda have been suggested, as well as cash incentives offered by some employers. With the passage of the health care bill last March chain restaurants were required to post the calorie counts of their foods on menus. Some studies have found this moderately beneficial for obese adults.
But, as the costs of obesity insurance continue to rise, fewer Americans will have the medical options available for weight loss, insinuating that higher costs are still on the horizon.
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