Healthy people cost public health system more

Healthy people cost public health system more

HEALTHY? You are a burden to (the) health system.

Dutch researchers have found that smokers and the overweight actually cost the public health system less than healthy people because they live longer and the taxpayer has to deal with the cost of "lingering diseases of old age such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons".

The Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and Environment found that while "a person of normal weight costs on average $458,000 over their lifetime", a smoker clocks up just $359,000 and the obese run up an average $407,000 bill.

The study led by Pieter van Baal found: The underlying mechanism is that there is a substitution of inexpensive, lethal diseases towards less lethal, and therefore more costly diseases.

Smokers cost the least because they tend to die younger. And being overweight lowers medical bills because it raises the risk of diseases such as diabetes which decrease life expectancy.

However Dieticians Association of Australia nutrition expert Clare Collins said the study was no reason to lay down - or light up.

"They are trying to prove that if you are healthy you cost more but that is just the health care system not personal cost and does not consider how much the person contributes to the tax system," she said.

"People who lead a healthy life, who work and pay tax, will put more into the system then people sick and dying during the latter part of their lives."

Dr Collins said while the study would be good for healthcare planning it was based on hypothetical situations and did not take into account anything but economics.

"For obese people between 20 and 40 years old, life is no picnic," she said.

"Just consider the people on the Biggest Loser television show, where you see grown men crying about their weight - that dispels the myth of jolly fat people.

"What kind of future do you want for yourself? The fact is you don't live as long and have a look at your quality of life."

Weight related disease and injury cost Australia $21 billion in 2005 alone.