Obese Account for Greatest Jump in Healthcare Spending

Health care spending on obese patients in the United States has ballooned, growing more than 80 percent ove a five-year period, researchers have found. Spending on the heaviest members of the population rose to $303.1 billion in 2006 from $166.7 billion in 2001 -- an 82 percent increase, according to a statistical brief from the Agency for health care Research & Quality. That figure compares with a 36 percent increase in total expenditures for patients who were merely overweight and a 25...Full Story