# Obesity and Health Care

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-health-care/495515>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [May 6, 2009, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-health-care/495515 "2009-05-06T04:12:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-health-care/495515/61 "2009-05-08T22:28:21Z")

</div>

[This study](http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1361028) indicates that healthcare costs are strongly age dependent and so lifetime healthcare costs are strongly tied to those who live longer. This would seem to indicate the reward for healthy living is a longer life and an expensive death.

I recall there being a study in the news within the last year (it may have been this one, I am not sure) that backed with numbers for smokers and the obese which showed that despite these factors being associated with expensive diseases like cancer and diabetes, those who were healthier longer still out spent them on lifetime healthcare.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-health-care/495515/62 "2009-05-08T22:33:22Z")

</div>

> [@lee](#):
>
> [This study](http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1361028) indicates that healthcare costs are strongly age dependent and so lifetime healthcare costs are strongly tied to those who live longer. This would seem to indicate the reward for healthy living is a longer life and an expensive death.
> 
> I recall there being a study in the news within the last year (it may have been this one, I am not sure) that backed with numbers for smokers and the obese which showed that despite these factors being associated with expensive diseases like cancer and diabetes, those who were healthier longer still out spent them on lifetime healthcare.

Of course people who live longer spend more on healthcare, but what’s your point?

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obesity-and-health-care/495515.md?page=3)