The High Cost of Being Overweight ; Related Medical Fees and Lost Time at Work Amount to More Than $2 Billion a Year in Maine, a Study Says.

By JOSIE HUANG Staff Writer

Being out of shape doesn’t just cost Mainers their health. Every year, more than $2 billion is spent on related medical fees and workers’ compensation or lost in workplace productivity, accord- ing to a study set for release this week by Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and the MaineHealth hospital system.

Lack of exercise, a problem for nearly half of Maine adults according to government surveys, accounts for most of the tab, followed by excess weight. One-fifth of adults are obese – the highest rate in New England.

These risk factors, linked to cancer and diabetes, drive up the price of health care for everybody. But it is employers who must pick up additional costs for problems like absenteeism and poor performance.

The findings make sense to Barbara Willey, who oversees health benefits for cafeteria workers and vending machine operators for Bangor-based Canteen Service Co.

“We have seen people who at a fairly young age have had to have a hip replacement where weight is a complication,” she said.

The report projects $2.68 billion in costs in 2008, if medical inflation and population growth continue at the same pace. There is a way to slow the upward trend, though, according to the report: If just 5 percent of Mainers who are sedentary, overweight or obese changed their lifestyles, the state could see savings of about $123 million a year.

“They could walk a little bit more so they could drop their risk factor, or eat a lot less food and tweak their diet,” said the report’s author, David Chenoweth, a professor of worksite health promotion at East Carolina University.

The report represents the first in-depth attempt to show the financial impact of Mainers’ excess weight and inactivity. State health officials say the cost analysis will help inform Maine’s health plan, a blueprint for how the state should spend its resources on health care each year.

It also will serve as a powerful tool when public health advocates present healthy eating policies to legislators and school administrators, said Lynne Rothney-Kozlak, president and chief executive officer of the Maine Center for Public Health in Augusta.

“Maine is struggling with health care costs, and this will help us substantiate it with skeptics,” Rothney-Kozlak said. “Money is what makes the world go round.”

Chenoweth has done similar reports in seven other states for clients such as the California Department of Health Services and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. But his work is controversial among groups that say concerns about obesity are exaggerated.

The Center for Consumer Freedom, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group financed by the food and restaurant industry, has repeatedly complained that Chenoweth’s estimates are too high.

“The trouble with measuring the economic cost of obesity is that it’s very difficult to determine whether someone incurred medical expense because they were fat, or because they had heart disease, or they had this or that,” said Justin Wilson, a research analyst for the organization.

Wilson said Chenoweth’s clients use his reports to advocate for more investment in public health in an effort to take pressure off their bottom lines.

Deb Deatrick, MaineHealth’s vice president for community health, says the report serves a different purpose. MaineHealth owns Maine Medical Center, the state’s largest hospital.

“What we’re hoping is that this report will throw down the gauntlet to employers and health care providers in this state to work together to do things we know will make a difference,” Deatrick said.

Deatrick said more employers could offer financial incentives to employees to join a weight reduction program or health club. Some companies already provide on-site workout facilities.

The report could also serve as a reminder to businesses to take advantage of wellness programs offered by insurance companies, Deatrick said.

MaineHealth commissioned the report with Anthem, the state’s largest health insurer, for about $12,500, Deatrick said. Chenoweth will present the report April 6 at the University of Southern Maine in Portland, in the first of four forums Anthem has organized about the issue of obesity.

Deatrick said the hope is to update the report in the coming year with more data. Chenoweth did not have access to information on people covered by MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program, or the federal Medicare program for the elderly and disabled.

He relied solely on insurance claims data collected by the Maine Health Information Center for about 650,000 Mainers, or about half of all Maine residents. Then he multiplied his findings by two to project a total statewide estimate that he describes as “conservative,” considering participants in MaineCare and Medicare tend to suffer from poorer health than people covered by employer- based insurance.

Willey said Canteen Service has not quantified how much excess weight and inactivity among employees has cost the family-owned company. But she said the company is not waiting to find out.

For the last several years, the company has initiated walking programs for employees and every week distributes wellness tips, such as “drink more water” or “eat more fruits.”

“We’re developing awareness by bombarding them from as many avenues as possible,” Willey said. “The cost of health care is just going up and up and up, and if there are any controls we can implement to help bring it down, we’ve got to do it.”

Staff Writer Josie Huang can be contacted at 791-6364 or at:

jhuang@pressherald.com