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Do you want them to keep spending money on drug R&D to solve all the other problems that still exist?
by wyager 1y ago
Do you want them to keep spending money on drug R&D to solve all the other problems that still exist?
- feverzsj 1y agoNo one says companies should lose money. The government can cover the price for everyone just like they did for covid vaccines. Considering obesity adds between $147 billion and $210 billion to annual U.S. health-care expenses[0], it would cost much less. [0]: https://theweek.com/articles/870872/americas-deadly-obesity-epidemic https://theweek.com/articles/870872/americas-deadly-obesity-...
- oezi 1y agoMy mathematical intuition says this isn't really much considering US annual GDP is 27 trillion (27,000 billions) USD. So less than 1% of GDP. Your linked article says: Obesity adds between $147 billion and $210 billion to annual U.S. health-care expenses, increasing an average adult's medical costs by 42 percent — an estimated $200,000 over a lifetime. Since annual GDP per person in the US is roughly 80k USD and average life expectancy is also roughly 80 so roughly 6.4m USD GDP per person lifetime. 200,000 USD over 6.4m would imply over 3% of GDP, which seems more reasonable.
- feverzsj 1y agoGDP isn't actual income. It's just a number.
- oezi 1y agoSure, but gross labor share of GDP is 60% in the US (salaried employees earn 60% of GDP in total) so it doesn't change the consideration that much. The US is spending roughly 15% of the GDP on health. If 1% of GDP is due to obesity then this is 'just' 1/15th of the overall health spending. If 3% of GDP is due to obesity then this is 20% (3/15th) of the overall health cost in the US.