Obesity rates among adults rose in 23 US states over the past year and did not decline anywhere, says a new report from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
And while the US has long been bracing for a surge in the government-funded medical program for the elderly as the generation born after World War II starts turning 65, the new report makes clear that fat, not just age, will fuel much of those bills. In every state, the rate of obesity is higher among 55- to 64-year-olds - the oldest boomers - than among today's 65-and-beyond.
That translates into a coming jump of obese elderly patients that ranges from 5.2 per cent in New York to a high of 16.3 per cent in Alabama, the report concluded. In Alabama, nearly 39 per cent of the oldest boomers are obese.
Health economists once made the harsh financial calculation that the obese would save money by dying sooner, notes Jeff Levi, executive director of the Trust, a nonprofit public health group. But more recent research instead suggests they live nearly as long but are much sicker for longer, requiring such costly interventions as knee replacements and diabetes care and dialysis. Studies show Medicare, as the program for the elderly is known, spends anywhere from $US1,400 ($A1,729) to $US6,000 ($A7,412) more annually on health care for an obese senior than for the non-obese.
"There isn't a magic bullet. We don't have a pill for it," said Levi, whose group is pushing for health reform legislation to include community-level programs that help people make healthier choices - like building footpaths so people can walk their neighbourhoods instead of drive and providing healthier school lunches.
"It's not going to be solved in the doctor's office but in the community, where we change norms," Levi said.
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