Cost of obesity could hit $4B

The fat tax the rest of us pay to keep the calorically irresponsible alive.

Barring a crash diet by the nation's fattest state, health care costs for obese Mississippians will skyrocket to $3.9 billion by 2018 - and taxpayers could foot up to half that bill.

"If we don't reverse this trend of obesity, the health care costs associated with obesity are going to overwhelm our health care system," said Dr. John Hall, Arthur G. Guyton professor and chairman of physiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. "That figure was estimated to be $925 million in 2008. We in Mississippi can't afford the $3.9 billion related to obesity, and I think that's an underestimate."

Cut 'em loose from the money trough.

If they want to live, then let them pay for their increased costs and leave the rest of us out of it.