Die you healthy scum! Die! Die! Die!

[The Heretic]

http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stori...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-02-05-02-58-08

Fat People Cheaper to Treat, Study Says

By MARIA CHENG
AP Medical Writer

LONDON (AP) -- Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it doesn't save money, researchers reported Monday. It costs more to care for healthy people who live years longer, according to a Dutch study that counters the common perception that preventing obesity would save governments millions of dollars.

"It was a small surprise," said Pieter van Baal, an economist at the Netherlands' National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, who led the study. "But it also makes sense. If you live longer, then you cost the health system more."

In a paper published online Monday in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal, Dutch researchers found that the health costs of thin and healthy people in adulthood are more expensive than those of either fat people or smokers.

Van Baal and colleagues created a model to simulate lifetime health costs for three groups of 1,000 people: the "healthy-living" group (thin and non-smoking), obese people, and smokers. The model relied on "cost of illness" data and disease prevalence in the Netherlands in 2003.

The researchers found that from age 20 to 56, obese people racked up the most expensive health costs. But because both the smokers and the obese people died sooner than the healthy group, it cost less to treat them in the long run.

On average, healthy people lived 84 years. Smokers lived about 77 years, and obese people lived about 80 years. Smokers and obese people tended to have more heart disease than the healthy people.

Cancer incidence, except for lung cancer, was the same in all three groups. Obese people had the most diabetes, and healthy people had the most strokes. Ultimately, the thin and healthy group cost the most, about $417,000, from age 20 on.

The cost of care for obese people was $371,000, and for smokers, about $326,000.

The results counter the common perception that preventing obesity will save health systems worldwide millions of dollars.

"This throws a bucket of cold water onto the idea that obesity is going to cost trillions of dollars," said Patrick Basham, a professor of health politics at Johns Hopkins University who was unconnected to the study. He said that government projections about obesity costs are frequently based on guesswork, political agendas, and changing science.

"If we're going to worry about the future of obesity, we should stop worrying about its financial impact," he said.

Obesity experts said that fighting the epidemic is about more than just saving money.

"The benefits of obesity prevention may not be seen immediately in terms of cost savings in tomorrow's budget, but there are long-term gains," said Neville Rigby, spokesman for the International Association for the Study of Obesity. "These are often immeasurable when it comes to people living longer and healthier lives."

Van Baal described the paper as "a book-keeping exercise," and said that governments should recognize that successful smoking and obesity prevention programs mean that people will have a higher chance of dying of something more expensive later in life.

"Lung cancer is a cheap disease to treat because people don't survive very long," van Baal said. "But if they are old enough to get Alzheimer's one day, they may survive longer and cost more."

The study, paid for by the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports, did not take into account other potential costs of obesity and smoking, such as lost economic productivity or social costs.

"We are not recommending that governments stop trying to prevent obesity," van Baal said. "But they should do it for the right reasons."

 

[The Heretic]

*bump* because this is relevant to Dolf's thread.

 

[daylightwarrior]

Have them retire even earlier. That will do them in. I know very few people who need to retire at 62.5.

 

[The Heretic]

Have them retire even earlier. That will do them in. I know very few people who need to retire at 62.5.

I could retire now if I had the money (I've been tempted, but I am not quite there yet). There are plenty of things I would rather do than work. I like the work I do, but if I had the money I would not be working I would be traveling and other stuff.

 

[daylightwarrior]

I could retire now if I had the money (I've been tempted, but I am not quite there yet). There are plenty of things I would rather do than work. I like the work I do, but if I had the money I would not be working I would be traveling and other stuff.

I could retire now but what the heck would I do? I would go out and work just I'm doing, I enjoy what I do. I can't sit around posting on this board, play video games, have no desire to travel anymore, join a club or play golf. I only sleep 4-5 hours a night and I already volunteer most of my spare time just to keep doing something.

I do remodeling work, so I'm in quite a few peoples homes. I see these older people who are just puttering around without a purpose.

To keep on topic these are the healthy, lean people who just finished working IBM, Lockheed or HP for 45+ years. And no I'm not even close to retirement age.

 

[The Heretic]

I could retire now but what the heck would I do? I would go out and work just I'm doing, I enjoy what I do. I can't sit around posting on this board, play video games, have no desire to travel anymore, join a club or play golf. I only sleep 4-5 hours a night and I already volunteer most of my spare time just to keep doing something.

I do remodeling work, so I'm in quite a few peoples homes. I see these older people who are just puttering around without a purpose.

It is an individual thing. I could keep busy doing all kinds of stuff besides work if I had the money. I would like to go to New Orleans for the jazz festival, I would visit relatives, I would like to tour a number of countries on my motorcycle starting with New Zealand. I would write. I would read. I would take some classes (math, history, science, philosophy, etc.). I would fly to Tahiti and just lay in the sand and the blue water.

 

[Faneros]

I could retire now if I had the money (I've been tempted, but I am not quite there yet). There are plenty of things I would rather do than work. I like the work I do, but if I had the money I would not be working I would be traveling and other stuff.

buy a house...

 

[crazybbwgirl]

FINALLY! I wonder when my health insurance rates are going to go down....