Obesity Medical Costs to Hit $1 tn by 2025

[The Atheist]

Link

And still people normalise obesity. We even have a "Fat Studies" course running as a legitimate qualification at a university here. Typically, it is being run and promoted by an American. A very large American ... woman?..

The CEO of Britain's NHS has already claimed obesity threatens to bankrupt the organisation.

I see people daily who are unable to walk normally because their thighs are so fat they have to swing their leg out to get past the other.

And some of them are school children.

How about we start shock ads in the way we did in the second half of the 20th century to inhibit smoking? Maybe if kids watched horrendously fat people's bodies being lifted into a grave by crane because it's too heavy for people to lift might encourage one or two of them to tell mummy to stop feeding them crap.

At the very least, let's stop pretending fat is ok, normal or anything else. Classify it as a mental illness if you like, but we have to stop saying it's ok to be the size of a bus.

Obesity, in combination with the baby boom bulge, is going to bankrupt everything, not just hospital services.

 

[This is The End]

no

 

[The Don]

Obesity and obesity-related illnesses are putting pressure on medial services and medial budgets. Then again so are a lot of things.

As more and more people become obese then by definition obesity will become normalised. The information out there is by no means conclusive. Various studies have shown that being "ideal" weight offers little or no health benefits over being "obese" - and in some cases there are health negative implications for being "ideal" weight.

Attempting to demonise people who are overweight and use shock tactics are unlikely to work IMO. OTOH in the UK there have been nudge-based information campaigns about weight and lifestyle which have been running for years but we're getting heavier.

 

[lionking]

Dr Cat Pause????

The Fat Studies degree looks fake to me. Not buying it. The lecturer's name is too ridiculous to be true.

 

[angrysoba]

Dr Cat Pause????

The Fat Studies degree looks fake to me. Not buying it. The lecturer's name is too ridiculous to be true.

It's a pretty elaborate hoax, if not true. Her publications including academic papers and books are listed, and a quick search for one of them finds Amazon in on the fakery:

https://www.amazon.com/Queering-Fat-Embodiment-Queer-Interventions/dp/140946542X

 

[GlennB]

Deleted - it's in the o/p

 

[Vixen]

Dr Cat Pause????

The Fat Studies degree looks fake to me. Not buying it. The lecturer's name is too ridiculous to be true.

Oh, welcome back!

 

[Vixen]

Obesity is rarely a mental illness. There are cases where people eat to excess, triggered by a psychological event - for example, many survivors of the Holocaust - or a life event set back.

IMV obesity is due to sheer gluttony (greed). I have read a few books on this and that is the general conclusion of the guy who wrote 'Fat America'.

I think ready meals and people not cooking any more is a large factor, together with snacking throughout the day. I knew one (very lovely) woman who liked to eat a bowl of cornflakes throughout the day (she suffered diabetes and obesity and died relatively young).

I remember when I was a child, my mother cooked proper meals out of basic ingredients (she used to pick up some mackerel from the fishmongers once a week) and visit the greengrocers for fresh vegetables.

I was fashionably skinny throughout my youth.

These days, at 173 cm and 70 kg, I do have to watch out the weight doesn't creep up on me, but yes, people are so much fatter than before.

 

[Oystein]

When you are old and gray and frail and in need of care, your nurses will be soooo grateful if you have normal weight and thus are easy to wash, clothe and transfer!

 

[TX50]

When you are old and gray and frail and in need of care, your nurses will be soooo grateful if you have normal weight and thus are easy to wash, clothe and transfer!

Especially if the nurses are a bunch of fatties.

 

[bytewizard]

"Welcome to Wendy's, may I take your order?"

"I would like the Dave's triple with cheese combo meal, large sized, with a diet coke. Add in a chicken sandwich and a large frosty. Plus a Junior bacon cheeseburger. Oh, do you accept EBT cards?"

"Thank you for calling the Affordable Care Act sign up hotline, how may I help you?"

"I would like to apply for my free subsidized, cannot be turned down for pre-existing conditions gold health care plan. It is my right."

"I would be happy to assist you. Before we get started on signing you up, do you have any questions?"

"Yes, make sure my doctor's office is within one half mile of a Wendy's, McDonalds, Taco Bell, and of course, KFC."

"I can definitely help you with that today. You are exactly the type of person who, previously, before Obama came along, could not have or would have paid more for their rightfully theirs health care. Welcome aboard."

 

[johnny karate]

"Welcome to Wendy's, may I take your order?"

"I would like the Dave's triple with cheese combo meal, large sized, with a diet coke. Add in a chicken sandwich and a large frosty. Plus a Junior bacon cheeseburger. Oh, do you accept EBT cards?"

"Thank you for calling the Affordable Care Act sign up hotline, how may I help you?"

"I would like to apply for my free subsidized, cannot be turned down for pre-existing conditions gold health care plan. It is my right."

"I would be happy to assist you. Before we get started on signing you up, do you have any questions?"

"Yes, make sure my doctor's office is within one half mile of a Wendy's, McDonalds, Taco Bell, and of course, KFC."

"I can definitely help you with that today. You are exactly the type of person who, previously, before Obama came along, could not have or would have paid more for their rightfully theirs health care. Welcome aboard."

Your oh so biting satire conveniently overlooks the fact that those who rail against Obamacare also rail agaisnt any kind of health initiative as an affront to personal liberty.

To wit:

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/26/nation/la-na-michelle-obama-obesity-20110227

 

[Giordano]

Sure- thin people think fat people have only themselves to blame and therefore should pay more for their health insurance. People who don't drink alcohol think people who do have only themselves to blame and therefore should pay more for their health insurance. People who don't smoke think that people who do (a really high health risk there) have only themselves to blame and therefore should pay more for their health insurance. People who exercise religiously.... The list goes on and on, and of course everyone puts themselves in the low payment category and thinks it's the others who are voluntarily ruining their health and should pay higher premiums. If one combines all the "bad behavior" categories who should pay more probably only a few monks somewhere in Tibet qualify for the cheapest payment rates!

First, it is not so easy to define voluntary behavior. For example, metabolism is very complicated and becoming fat (or staying fat, or becoming fat again after losing weight) is not just due to gluttony. For a variety of reasons it is extraordinarily difficult for many people to not gain, and once gained, to lose weight. It is like telling a depressed person to just cheer up. Most fat people know there are fat, are embarrassed or even horrified by it, and want nothing more than to lose that extra weight. But for a variety of emotional and physiological reasons they cannot. Probably part of this reflects the fact we evolved from a feast and famine existence and our programmed approach to food doesn't work well in an environment where food is constantly available. And I point this out as a skinny person.

The same is true of other addictions and other "poor" life styles. They are part of human nature and not simply things that one can use to shame others, to blame others, and to "make them pay" for "their own poor choices." We all have something about us that increases our risks of certain diseases- sometimes it is genetic, sometimes it is our environment or workplace, and sometimes it is one or more of these "voluntary" behaviors that are not all that voluntary. Health insurance is a way of pooling these risks, and I will help pay for the risks of the people who cannot lose weight if they will pay my risk of a reoccurring neoplasia. It seems fair enough to me.

 

[Modified]

We can't look at medical costs in isolation. What are the savings in US social security and similar programs in other countries due to obesity? Based on the numbers I'm seeing, there is a net savings in the US even using worst case estimates for increased lifetime medical costs. And, the greater the level of obesity, the greater the savings. There may be other losses to the US economy due to lower productivity, etc.

 

[Hubert Cumberdale]

First, it is not so easy to define voluntary behavior. For example, metabolism is very complicated and becoming fat (or staying fat, or becoming fat again after losing weight) is not just due to gluttony.

It is due to gluttony.

There might be an underlying cause (emotional problems, eating disorders and so on), but obesity is caused by consuming a significant excess of calories over an extended period of time.

This is whats commonly understood to be gluttony.

And we need to stop making excuses for it.

 

[Ziggurat]

Various studies have shown that being "ideal" weight offers little or no health benefits over being "obese" - and in some cases there are health negative implications for being "ideal" weight.

Sure, if you go by BMI, which doesn't distinguish between fat and muscle. So you can be "obese" with low body fat, and you can be "normal" with moderate body fat.

But being fat is unambiguously bad for you.

Attempting to demonise people who are overweight and use shock tactics are unlikely to work IMO.

Possibly not. Conversely, if pro-fat messages may be unsuccessful as well. But that's a best-case scenario. If they are successful, then they'll just make the health problems worse.

OTOH in the UK there have been nudge-based information campaigns about weight and lifestyle which have been running for years but we're getting heavier.

Not enough good information out there about how to actually get fit and healthy.

 

[Ziggurat]

We can't look at medical costs in isolation. What are the savings in US social security and similar programs in other countries due to obesity? Based on the numbers I'm seeing, there is a net savings in the US even using worst case estimates for increased lifetime medical costs. And, the greater the level of obesity, the greater the savings. There may be other losses to the US economy due to lower productivity, etc.

If there's a net savings because people are dying younger from obesity-related health problems, well, **** the savings. The human cost is horrific, and not worth the money.

 

[The Sparrow]

....How about we start shock ads in the way we did in the second half of the 20th century to inhibit smoking?

Have you evidence that such tactics work?

Maybe if kids watched horrendously fat people's bodies being lifted into a grave by crane because it's too heavy for people to lift might encourage one or two of them to tell mummy to stop feeding them crap.

Have you evidence that such tactics work?

At the very least, let's stop pretending fat is ok, normal or anything else. Classify it as a mental illness if you like, but we have to stop saying it's ok to be the size of a bus.

So its black or white? What do you call people who are 20 lbs overweight? Are they the 'size of a bus'.
How do you think such language helps the situation.
Do you think fat shaming works?

Shouldn't we focus on things that are proven to work?

I doubt contempt is the answer.

Perhaps heavily taxing junk food might be more constructive? Perhaps there are studies on that?

 

[Ziggurat]

Most fat people know there are fat, are embarrassed or even horrified by it, and want nothing more than to lose that extra weight. But for a variety of emotional and physiological reasons they cannot.

There are physiological reasons which make it hard. There are emotional reasons which make it hard. But the primary obstacle is that most people don't even know what to do to lose a lot of weight. And no amount of willpower can compensate for a lack of knowledge.

The whole "biggest loser" approach of just more exercise and less eating doesn't work. It's not behaviorally sustainable. But there are approaches which ARE sustainable, but which have very little popular exposure.

The number one thing to do, if you want to lose a bunch of weight and keep it off, is to first get strong. Build muscle. This raises resting metabolic rate, which of course helps a lot, but it's more than just that. When you get strong, exercise becomes tolerable, where it's miserable when you're weak and fat. You have obtainable, quantifiable objectives other than just losing weight which you can make progress on, which will directly and quickly impact your life in a positive way, and which require you to not starve yourself in the process. And the metabolic processes of building and repairing muscles also burn a **** ton of calories.

 

[applecorped]

I guess fat shaming isn't so bad after all