So much for first lady Michelle Obama’s get fit campaign.
A new Gallup survey finds that America is fatter and more stressed out than when President Obama came into office.
And its costing the nation $491 billion more a year in health care.
Gallup’s well-researched “Well-Being” surveys, put out over that past week, find that 28 percent of the nation is obese, up from 25.5 percent. Diabetes impacts 11.4 percent of the nation. Stress has climbed to a shocking 40 percent.
Just as bad are the weak positive increases in exercise and smoking. Gallup found that people aren’t exercising much more than when Obama came into office, showing off his basketball style and his wife pushing the Let’s Move program. There was just a 1.3 percent increase in those who exercise 30 more minutes three times a week.
And the percentage of people smoking dropped just 2.6 points.
The impact? From Gallup:
The implications of these results are very real — and are significant for the U.S. economy. Adults who are overweight accumulate about $378 more per person each year in healthcare costs, while those who are obese cost an astonishing $1,580 more per person each year. Taken together, above-normal-weight adults in the U.S. add more than $142 billion each year in incremental healthcare costs.
Smoking, in turn, is even more costly per person. Adults who smoke accrue, on average, $2,132 more each year in healthcare costs than nonsmokers, adding another $92 billion. And together, overweight or obese Americans who smoke add an astonishing $235 billion in unnecessary healthcare costs each year.
But the story doesn’t end there. Obesity and smoking degrade employees’ health, elevating unplanned absenteeism in the workplace and reducing overall productivity. Assuming that every eight hours of unplanned missed work costs $344 in lost productivity, the combination of obesity and smoking among U.S. workers causes an estimated $257 billion of lost economic activity each year.
So, coupled together — and limiting the analysis only to unnecessary healthcare costs and incremental unplanned absences — obesity and smoking are needlessly costing the U.S. economy nearly a half-trillion dollars annually.
There is hope, though. Gallup did find that millennials have better habits than older Americans.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
