InsureMe Study Finds Link Between Weight and Health Insurance Costs |
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Written by U.S. Insurance News
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Friday, 08 February 2008 |
The link between obesity and risk for disease, such as diabetes and certain types of cancer, is hardly unknown. But now there’s another negative link for the overweight—one that connects Americans’ growing waistlines with their growing health care costs.
The link between obesity and risk for disease, such as diabetes and certain types of cancer, is hardly unknown.
But now there’s another negative link for the overweight—one that connects Americans’ growing waistlines with their growing health care costs.
According to data from InsureMe.com, an online insurance finder, 47 states saw an overall increase in BMI (body mass index, a measure of a person’s body fat relative to his height and weight) in 2007. Because private health insurers calculate premiums based on their risk to insure the client, people with high BMIs will pay more for individual health insurance coverage.
The states with the highest BMIs were Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Michigan, and Maryland. Washington, D.C., had the greatest increase in BMI—more than 10 percent in 2007. The only states that saw BMI decreases last year were Delaware (-0.45 percent), Louisiana (-0.59 percent), and Hawaii (-6.53 percent).
The findings were aggregated from data used for insurance-quoting purposes.
Individuals with BMIs between 25 and 30 are considered overweight, and the Center for Disease Control defines obesity as having a BMI of 30 or more. Adult obesity rates rose in 31 states in 2007, according to the fourth annual report by the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH). The report also found that 60 percent of the population in 32 states is either overweight or obese.
Furthermore, obesity costs employers time on the job. A 2007 Duke University study analyzing obesity and workers’ compensation found 184 workdays were lost per 100 obese full-time employees, compared with 14 lost workdays per 100 normal-weight full-time employees. The Duke study also revealed that the average obese worker has 21 percent higher health costs than people of normal weight.
Similarly, a 2006 Medicare study found that obese patients cost the agency 15 percent more than normal or overweight patients.
InsureMe’s 2007 data and the TFAH’s national state fat rankings both found that Southern states are among the unhealthiest. However, it’s not just the fried cuisine that Dixie states are famous that is to blame for obesity. Poverty is to blame too. Poor families buy cheaper, processed foods, which are higher in fat content and lower in nutritional value.
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