The latest state by state numbers on the state of obesity are in and the pattern is clear. We’re fatter.
Mississippi continues to cling to the obesity throne (a third of the state is obese) but Alabama is close behind.
While the nation has long been bracing for a surge in Medicare as the boomers start turning 65, the new report makes clear that fat, not just age, will fuel much of those bills. In every state, the rate of obesity is higher among 55- to 64-year-olds — the oldest boomers — than among today’s 65-and-beyond.
The report provides one of the first in-depth looks at obese boomers, and its implications are sobering. This first wave of aging boomers will mean a jump of obese Medicare patients that ranges from 5.2 percent in New York to a high of 16.3 percent in Alabama, the report concluded. In Alabama, nearly 39 percent of the oldest boomers are obese.
Are these just stats that fall into the it’s always been that way category?
No. In 1991, there was not a single state with an obesity rate higher than 20 percent. Today, there is only one state under 20%: Colorado.
