Medicare Expenses Rise Steeply for Obese Beneficiaries, Says Study

A new study says that more taxpayer money is being spent on Medicare per person, per year. Medicare is the US government's health insurance for seniors. It also says that obese people insured under the health plan added an extra $149 per person, per year to increasing Medicare costs. The research was reported by Reuters Health.

The study was conducted by the University of Maryland School of Medicine on nearly 30,000 people with Medicare. They divided the people into three groups -- normal, overweight and obese -- depending on their body mass index, or BMI, a measure of weight in relation to height.

Expenses grew in the following ways: for someone with normal weight, his/her health care expenses grew by $122 annually. Overweight people were burdened with a $230 per person increase of cost. Obese beneficiaries were hardest hit with health care expenses climbing by $271.



Source: Medindia