Forbes.com has an article here commenting on some findings just recently published by Health Affairs: “The Rising Prevalence Of Treated Disease: Effects On Private Health Insurance Spending” by Kenneth E. Thorpe , Curtis S. Florence, David H. Howard, Peter Joski. A related article with similar implications was published back in October by the same authors.

Excerpt from the Forbes article:

There’s been no question that health care costs in this country are soaring. The question has been, “Why?”

“You can break health care spending into two things,” Thorpe explained. “One is that we’re treating more people who are sick, and second is that it costs more to treat those patients.”

To find out which factor was predominant, Thorpe and his colleagues looked at data from the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey and the 2002 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, both nationally representative samples. Specifically, they were concerned with spending among privately insured adults aged 18 to 64 for the top 20 medical conditions.

As it turned out, more than half of the growth in health care spending was attributable to increased prevalence of disease rather than an increase in how much it cost to treat each person.

These graphics here from the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion illustrate the issue. More links here as well.

More on the findings from KaiserNetwork.org in this article: “Private Health Insurance Spending Related to Obesity Increased Tenfold Since 1987, Study Says.”

Also, an article from the ABAJournal.com: “A Matter of Weight.”