Lessons from HBO's 'Weight of the Nation'

This past week HBO debuted a four part documentary called The Weight of the Nation on the obesity epidemic in the US.  The clip above from part four talks about how geography can have a big effect on one's health due to the socioeconomic factors which surround these areas.  The fourth episode which deals with public health challenges can be seen below and is relevant to much of the research I have been doing for PUSH-Healthcare for All PA on Pennsylvania's uninsured.  The episode can be seen below.  All four parts can be seen at the above link in italics.  I'll review this episode in particular.

The program does a good job of presenting the data and issues related to the obesity epidemic in the US.  The impacts of their actions, intentional or not, are discussed at length including those on health care costs.  Various solutions to the problem are discussed such as ending farm subsidies, creating more park space in inner city areas such as Philadelphia County, and adding more bike trails.  While all of these are good things which I fully support, how much does the obesity epidemic really contribute to the high cost of health?  According to The Incidental Economist only around $25 billion in extra health care spending in 2004 can be attributed to health problems related to obesity because other non obesity related diseases such as prostate cancer are just as prevalent in the US relative to other countries with universal care such as Japan, Germany and the UK as can be seen in the graph below.  Diseases below the horizontal line in the graph such as Hepatitis B and Bladder Cancer are more prevalent in those countries.  You can see more cost analysis at this page.

In the opening credits of the episode above we can see that one of the sponsors of this documentary is Kaiser Permanente which was skewered for its profiteering practices in the film Sicko by Michael Moore.  The practices of the health insurance, pharmaceutical, and agribusiness industries to maximize profits often overlap.  I credit the filmmakers for skewering the food industry.  Is the Kaiser Permanente using this documentary to distract individuals from their own practices?  Congress only turned on the tobacco industry when the costs to the health care system became clear.

**Related Posts**

Evergreening

 

Moving Backward 

 

Unbelievable Promises Monopolized Care—UPMC

WaPo Interactive International Cost Graphic