Rising Cost Of Health Care vs. Personal Responsibility

Many of us now realize that obesity is a major risk factor for some of the nation's most complex and costly chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. Human costs are staggering.

As the nation looks to control health care costs, there is no agenda to be able to ignore the urgent issues to fight obesity in America. After smoking, which causes about 400,000 deaths annually, a condition associated with weight loss is the second leading cause of death in the U.S., which resulted in some 300,000 deaths each year could be prevented. A surprising 84% of health claims is a direct result of lifestyle choices are bad (such as smoking, diet, drug abuse).

What's worse, the dramatic new statistics show that obesity has increased at record levels during the last ten years rose from 25 percent of adults in 1980 to 34 percent today. As a result, approximately 58 million American adults, or more than a third of the adult population are overweight dangerous. This high incidence of obesity, especially pronounced in minority populations, especially among women, and is rampant among low-income ethnic populations.

Obesity is also a serious health problem for the nation's children, too. Since 1980 has been 42% increase in obesity levels. One in five teenagers are now considered overweight significantly. What makes this leap in obesity is particularly worrying that the excess weight in children associated with premature cardiovascular disease and Type II diabetes.