Obesity drives up the cost of health care by increasing the incidence of diabetes, hypertension, and a wide variety of expensive chronic health conditions, many of which are significant risk factors for other serious diseases, say researchers at Emory University, Atlanta

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Oct, 2005

Obesity drives up the cost of health care by increasing the incidence of diabetes, hypertension, and a wide variety of expensive chronic health conditions, many of which are significant risk factors for other serious diseases, say researchers at Emory University, Atlanta. They found the overall cost of health care rose from $3,600,000,000 in 1987 to $36,500,000,000 in 2002.

The cost of caring for obesity jumped from two percent of money spent to 11.6%.