Recent Studies And Surveys
Health Affairs: Annual Medical Spending Attributable to Obesity: Payer- and Service-Specific Estimates -- Using data from 1998 and 2006 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys (MEPS) - "a nationally representative survey of the civilian noninstitutionalized population that quantifies a person"s total annual medical spending by type of service and of payment" - the authors estimate the health cost of obesity in the U.S. is $147 billion. "Across all payers, per capita medical spending for the obese is $1,429 higher per year, or roughly 42 percent higher, than for someone of normal weight. In aggregate, the annual medical burden of obesity has increased from 6.5 percent to 9.1 percent of annual medical spending and could be as high as $147 billion per year (in 2008 dollars) based on the NHEA [National Health Expenditure Accounts] estimate," according to the study. In conclusion, the authors write, "The take-home message is that without a strong and sustained reduction in obesity prevalence, obesity will continue to impose major costs on the health system for the foreseeable future. And although health reform may be necessary to address health inequities and rein in rising health spending, real savings are more likely to be achieved through reforms that reduce the prevalence of obesity and related risk factors, including poor diet and inactivity" (7/27).
Medical Devices
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Editorials, Opinion Pieces Respond To Recent Action On Health Reform
providers to give -- and patients to consume -- too much care." He adds that any reform plan needs to "attack access and cost with equal fervor." Jacob writes, "We need to embrace the principle that more expensive health care is not better health care," concluding, "It is simply more" (Jacob, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 5/9). *Dick Morris, The Hill: The only way to achieve the cost reductions included in last week"s pledge by industry leaders "is to ration health care, thereby destroying our system," Morris, former adviser to Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and former President Clinton and author of the book "Outrage," writes. He continues that Obama"s position that U.S. residents" current health plans will not be altered "except for a magical reduction in their cost by $2,500 a year is a fool"s proposition" because private health insurers "will be no more private than TARP-funded banks." Instead, private insurers "will be controlled by government health care planners who will approve treatments, limit drug use, hold down medical incomes and bring their cost-cutting programs to bear," Morris writes (Morris, The Hill, 5/12). *Rich Lowry, New York Post: "Aside from its initial $1.5 trillion price tag over 10 years, the Obama plan would mean exploding public costs -- and higher taxes and/or rationing and price controls -- once it"s been implemented on sugary, unrealizable promises," syndicated columnist Lowry writes. He concludes, "The imperative for Obama now is simply to find a way to make the medicine go down, and if industry is willing to help, all the better" (Lowry, New York Post, 5/13). *James Florio, Philadelphia Inquirer: The Congressional Budget Office"s prediction of health care overhaul plans" effect on the federal budget likely will "be the most important game in town" when it comes to health care reform, Florio, former Democratic governor of New Jersey and a former state congressman, writes. Florio notes that "the House and Senate do not move forward on policies affecting the federal budget -- basically, any policy -- without consulting the nonpartisan experts at the CBO" first (Florio, Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/15). *Richard Fried, Philadelphia Inquirer: Physicians could "eliminate the current health care crisis" immediately and without legislation "[b]y eliminating unnecessary tests and procedures," Fried, director of the Kimberton Clinic for Sustainable Medicine and a family physician, writes. Fried continues, "I reckon that every unnecessary CT scan or MRI helps force one more person into the ranks of the uninsured." He continues, "Unneeded tests and procedures are not only economically unsustainable, they also represent bad medicine" in that they increase the risk of invasive procedures, raise "unnecessary fears (which, ironically, only more tests can alleviate)" and contribute to "physician burnout" (Fried, Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/13). *Norman Ornstein, Roll Call: "Almost every stakeholder in the health system knows not only that change has to come, but that it can"t go on the same path that it has," Ornstein, an American Enterprise Institute resident scholar, writes. With so many health care industry interests coming together to work on health care reform, "there is reason to believe that health policy reform has a real chance of success this year," Ornstein says (Ornstein, Roll Call, 5/13). *Eric Larson, Seattle Times: If Obama takes a stance with health care that is similar to the one he took with troubled U.S. automakers, "he won"t bow to sectors that would resist reform from their own self-interest," which means instituting some cost controls and examining the health care structure, Larson, executive director of the Group Health Center for Health Studies, writes. "Those of us who work in health care may have to look past our fear of change to accept needed reform for the entire country"s good," Larson adds (Larson, Seattle Times, 5/13). *Sally Pipes, U.S. News & World Report: "American health care may not be perfect," but "it"s not on the verge of collapse either -- unless President Obama succeeds with his various health care reform efforts," Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute, writes. "The long-term fix for America"s health care system must serve patients, not government," she concludes (Pipes, U.S. News & World Report, 5/13). *Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal: Members of the Obama administration "speak obscurely" on issues like health care reform either "because they can"t help themselves" or "because they really aren"t all that keen to have people understand them," according to Journal columnist Noonan. "They"re not helping the prevailing sense of national anxiety by speaking in a special lingo all their own," she writes, adding, "After all, it"s not their health care system they"re reforming, it is America"s," so it "would be nice if America were allowed to know what exactly the plan is, and how it would work, and who would pay, and how" (Noonan, Wall Street Journal, 5/16). *Drew Altman, Washington Post: The pledge by health care industry groups to reduce spending growth "underscores how the prospect of broader action by a president and Congress, including specific ideas industry groups don"t like, such as a public plan option, can motivate industry to do more than it otherwise would," Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation, writes. According to Altman, "The bigger test will come once health reform legislation is written and details about how it will be financed become clear," at which point "the debate will enter a critical phase -- and if the industry is still at the table then, health care"s legendary interest groups will really have changed their ways, and prospects for reform will be vastly improved" (Altman, Washington Post, 5/17). *Lawrence Kudlow, Washington Times: "Free-market competition will lower costs in health care just as it has every place else" and will "grow the economy," syndicated columnist Kudlow writes in a Washington Times opinion piece. "Republicans must come up with some pro-competition, free-enterprise alternatives" for health care "that will meet the yearning of voter-taxpayers for a return to free-enterprise American prosperity and opportunity," he writes (Kudlow, Washington Times, 5/15). Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.Pages: 1 [2]