Soaring Obesity Rates Cost U.S. $215 billion A Year

Better pull the plug on fat care - fast.

A new report released Tuesday by the Brookings Institution finds that obesity costs the U.S. $215 billion annually in direct medical expenses and indirect productivity losses.

The study found that medical costs for obese adults are $147 billion dollars more per year than for those of normal weight. For children, the added costs due to obesity are $14.3 billion per year.

“The overall economic impact of obesity in the US appears to be substantial,” wrote researchers Ross Hammond and Ruth Levine of the Brookings economic studies program.

And those among us who are calorically responsible are shouldering the burden of bailing out the fat.