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Why Medicare costs are so high
The cover of a booklet provided at an informational meeting on the Medicare drug prescription program in Sun City, Ariz.
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TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal: Health care will reappear on the national agenda next week. President Obama's going to convene a summit with congressional leaders to try and move things forward. The cost of Medicare is sure to come up at some point, which means a study today by Health Affairs could not have come at a more opportune time.
Marketplace's Nancy Marshall Genzer reports.
Nancy Marshall Genzer: Researchers at Emory University say they've learned what's behind Medicare's ballooning costs. They looked at Medicare expenditures over 20 years. In 1987, hospital care was driving Medicare costs up. Today, it's outpatient treatment for seniors with chronic diseases, like diabetes and high blood pressure. Both linked to obesity.
LYDIA OGDEN: We have talked about it in the past as a hidden fat tax.
Lydia Ogden is a health policy analyst at Emory who co-authored the study.
OGDEN: Because what people don't realize is they're paying for this in the form of higher spending in publicly-financed programs.
Emory professor Kenneth Thorpe was the study's primary author. He says if we can keep obesity rates from rising over the next decade, Medicare can save a lot of money.
KENNETH THORPE: We can probably spend about 10 percent less in the Medicare program 10 years from now, but that means we gotta start today.
And by start, he means, get off the couch and yes, diet. Lydia Ogden says Medicare should start paying for tailored weight loss programs for people in their 50s who are overweight, and on the verge of diabetes or heart disease.
OGDEN: It's not enough to tell people that they shouldn't have that cheeseburger. What does work is saying, Mrs. Jones, here's your health profile. And these are the small steps that you can take.
Ogden says the reasons for Medicare's soaring costs have changed drastically. And Medicare needs to change, too, for its financial health and the health of older Americans.
In Washington, I'm Nancy Marshall Genzer for Marketplace.
Indeed, when considering the costs of health care to reverse the affects of obesity, wouldn't it just be fun to count the subsidies and tax breaks to Archer Daniels Midland, etc to create high fructose corn syrup, and the advertising subsidies given to American companies to push fast food and junk food?
"OGDEN: Because what people don't realize is they're paying for this in the form of higher spending in publicly-financed programs."
This is a bit silly to say. We aren't spending the money. The money is taken from is and then spent by medicare.
Question - How does the $70 billion a year that's lost due to fraud compare to how much less we'd spend if people on average weighed 7 pounds less and walked for 75 minutes more every week?
I second Paul Underhill's comments. Come on, where is the self reliance? Have we become that nanified that every problem has a program, paid for by ME? Get off your lazy butt, stop eating and start walking. Maybe we just need to let natural selection do its work and stop keeping people intent on killing themselves succeed. In the meantime, I would like to see a little more self reliance and a lot less whining for help. Get 'er done.
Martin- All I am reading from you is that you are poor, and unhealthy, and you are complaining that the Government is not giving you enough money for a problem which you seem to have done nothing on your own to fix. Am I right? I think it's unfair that I will pay a disproportionate amount of money from my paycheck to our government health account since I am working very hard to eat healthfully on a budget and exercise (walking/running is free, a pool at the YMCA is cheap) - so I will use less of the services than someone who is lazy. Of course this excludes the very small minority of the people like Alfred who is just unlucky genetically.
I am 6' tall and weigh 165lb. I have weighed that all my adult lige, give or take a pound. I ride my bicycle 10-15 miles a day, for fun, and I have for 40 years. But I also have type II diabetes. So did my father and my grandfather, both of whom died of complications from diabetes. I am seriously tired of hearing that this insidious disease is essentially the consequence of self-indulgent face stuffing.
The study authors got it right, though not complete. I'm on Medicare and SS Disability. I cannot afford all of my medications, or my own housing anymore, let alone the aquatic weight loss program my doctor says would be the best starting place for my exercise program. Congress needs to get real and get going with healthcare reform keeping in mind that they are way behind. The puny adjustment to prescription help is a disgrace of a reform. I wish you'd gone into more depth on this story. sorry for the rant.
