So your children and family are not obese. Why should you care?

Make no mistake about it; we all pay for obesity, directly and indirectly.   We pay for it in increased health insurance costs, increased medical costs, and increased business costs.  Obesity costs this nation $61 billion annually in direct medical costs and indirect costs like time off from work, productivity declines and calculations for future earnings.  This is an additional $56 billion a year. And some estimates are even higher: Treatment of illnesses related to obesity costs America $93 billion a year (9.1% of all health care spending), rivaling the financial toll of smoking-related disease. That figure does not include the additional $56 billion in associated indirect costs, bringing the total to about $149 billion.

http://www.healthiergeneration.org/about.aspx?id=316#health
http://www.nihcm.org/~nihcmor/pdf/OYCbrief.pdf


Table 2, Estimated  Obesity-Attributable Percentages and Expenditures, by State (BRFSS 1998–2000)

State	Total population %	(Millions $)	Medicare population %	(Millions $)	Medicaid population%	(Millions $)
Alabama	6.3	$1,320	7.7	$341	9.9	$269
Alaska	6.7	$195	7.7	$17	8.2	$29
Arizona	4	$752	3.9	$154	13.5*	$242
Arkansas	6	$663	7	$171	11.5	$180
California	5.5	$7,675	6.1	$1,738	10	$1,713
Colorado	5.1	$874	5.1	$139	8.7	$158
Connecticut	4.3	$856	6.5	$246	11	$419
Delaware	5.1	$207	9.8	$57	13.8	$66
District of Columbia	6.7	$372	6.5	$64	12.5	$114
Florida	5.1	$3,987	6.1	$1,290	11.6	$900
Georgia	6	$2,133	7.1	$405	10.1	$385
Hawaii	4.9	$290	4.8	$30	11.2	$90
Idaho	5.3	$227	5.6	$40	12	$69
Illinois	6.1	$3,439	7.8	$805	12.3	$1,045
Indiana	6	$1,637	7.2	$379	15.7	$522
Iowa	6	$783	7.5	$165	9.4	$198
Kansas	5.5	$657	6.4	$138	10.2*	$143
Kentucky	6.2	$1,163	7.5	$270	11.4	$340
Louisiana	6.4	$1,373	7.4	$402	12.9	$525
Maine	5.6	$357	5.7	$66	10.7	$137
Maryland	6	$1,533	7.7	$368	12.9	$391
Massachusetts	4.7	$1,822	5.6	$446	7.8	$618
Michigan	6.5	$2,931	7.8	$748	13.2	$882
Minnesota	5	$1,307	6.6	$227	8.6	$325
Mississippi	6.5	$757	8.1	$223	11.6	$221
Missouri	6.1	$1,636	7.1	$413	11.9	$454
Montana	4.9	$175	6.2	$41	9.8	$48
Nebraska	5.8	$454	7	$94	10.3	$114
Nevada	4.8	$337	5	$74	10.1*	$56
New Hampshire	5	$302	5.4	$46	8.6*	$79
New Jersey	5.5	$2,342	7.1	$591	9.8	$630
New Mexico	4.8	$324	4.6	$51	8.5	$84
New York	5.5	$6,080	6.7	$1,391	9.5	$3,539
North Carolina	6	$2,138	7	$448	11.5	$662
North Dakota	6.1	$209	7.7	$45	11.7	$55
Oklahoma	6	$854	7	$227	9.9	$163
Ohio	6.1	$3,304	7.7	$839	10.3	$914
Oregon	5.7	$781	6	$145	8.8	$180
Pennsylvania	6.2	$4,138	7.4	$1,187	11.6	$1,219
Puerto Rico	7.4		8.1		10.1
Rhode Island	5.2	$305	6.5	$83	7.7	$89
South Carolina	6.2	$1,060	7.7	$242	10.6	$285
South Dakota	5.3	$195	5.9	$36	9.9	$45
Tennessee	6.4	$1,840	7.6	$433	10.5	$488
Texas	6.1	$5,340	6.8	$1,209	11.8	$1,177
Utah	5.2	$393	5.8	$62	9	$71
Vermont	5.3	$141	6.9	$29	8.6	$40
Virginia	5.7	$1,641	6.7	$320	13.1	$374
Washington	5.4	$1,330	6	$236	9.9	$365
West Virginia	6.4	$588	7.3	$140	11.4	$187
Wisconsin	5.8	$1,486	7.7	$306	9.1	$320
Wyoming	4.9	$87	5.9	$15	8.5	$23
Total	5.7	$75,051	6.8	$17,701	10.6	$21,329

*Estimates based on fewer than 20 observations.
Source: Finkelstein, Fiebelkorn, and Wang, 2004.