Think about whether your life might be affected by obesity. Now think again.
Over 60% of Vermont adults and 29% of our kids are overweight or obese.
Are you paying for that?
New estimates from the Rudd Center for Food Policy shows it’s pretty likely. Obesity-related health care costs among Vermont adults are estimated at $202 million per year, and that doesn’t even include obesity costs for children.
All taxpayers are affected. Public funds, such as Medicare and Medicaid, pay for almost 1/2 of all adult medical expenditures in Vermont attributable to obesity ($57 million per year by Medicaid and $41 million by Medicare).
How about at work? Yes, there too.
Annual cost of obesity-related absenteeism in Vermont is $14.5 million[i] and that’s equal to 7.7% of the total costs of absenteeism in Vermont’s economy.
Isn’t it time we did something about it?
The Rudd Center also estimates Vermont would raise more than $34 million in new revenue from a 2 cent per ounce excise tax on sugar-added drinks.This funding could be used for obesity prevention and health care.
Sound good? We think so. You can help. Find out more.
https://www.facebook.com/HealthierVT
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Finkelstein, EA, Fiebelkorn, IC, Wang, G. State-level estimates of annual medical expenditures attributable to obesity. Obesity Research 2004;12(1):18–24.
Andreyeva T, Luedicke J, Wang YC. State-level estimates of obesity-attributable costs of absenteeism. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2014, in press.
http://www.yaleruddcenter.org/sodatax.aspx
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