BARBS

It isn’t often that I find myself in agreement with the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page. But today (actually,I’m talking about yesterday’s paper but I’m only getting to it today), I do.

In an editorial titled, “The Fat of the Land,” the Journal takes the government to task for its role in stoking America’s obesity epidemic, an epidemic that has become an increasingly large part of the nation’s health care spending — which the Obama administration is trying to tamp down.

The editors point out:

• 72 million Americans — that’s one out of every three — are obese.
• Obesity is associated with diabetes, heart disease, some cancers and other chronic illnesses.
• In this week’s “Weight of the Nation” report, the Centers for Disease Control estimates that obesity now accounts for 9.1% of all medical spending — $147 billion in 2008.
• The CDC also estimates that the annual per capita increase in Medicare spending attributable to obesity is 36%; for Medicaid, it’s 47%.

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