Tuesday's Rant

Heather says that my views on over-weight people can be too negative, possibly even discriminatory. While I will admit that I give no quarter to fat people complaining about squeezing into public places or the food at McDonald’s, I don’t think I’m discriminatory. However, my stance isn’t going to soften when I read reports like this:

Obesity may push U.S. health costs above Europe: study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly twice as many U.S. adults are obese compared to European, a key factor leading Americans to suffer more often from cancer, diabetes and other chronic ailments, a study released on Tuesday found.

Treatment of these and other chronic diseases adds between $100 billion and $150 billion to the annual health care tab in the United States, according to the report comparing U.S. and European health published online in the journal Health Affairs.

The United States spends significantly more per capita than any European country on health care, about $2 trillion annually, or 16 percent of the gross domestic product. While the big discrepancy has been linked to higher U.S. prices for medical treatment, the report said a sicker population may also be a factor.

"We expected to see differences between disease prevalence in the United States and Europe, but the extent of the differences is surprising," said Ken Thorpe, professor of public health at Emory University and a study co-author. "It is possible that we spend more on health care because we are, indeed, less healthy."

So you will excuse me if I don’t feel compassion for the growing – pun intended – segment of the U.S. population that by their own chosen lazy lifestyle is contributing to skyrocketing cost of health care which makes my daily fight to make ends meet more difficult.