The 'Skinny' On Obesity

CNBC's Erin Burnett just aired a segment on Street Signs today that illustrated exactly what I was getting at in my post last night on the healthcare costs of the obese. In the segment her guest is Dr. Delos Cosgrove, the President and CEO of the Cleveland Clinic.

If you haven't read the post my basic premise was that obesity is a major factor that adds billions of dollars of burden on our nations healthcare and insurance system. I argue that incentives need to be put in place to get people to live healthier lives and disincentives must be put in place to push people in to not living destructive lives. The costs must be spread so that healthy people do not subsidize the poor lifestyle choices of the obese. And for reference purposes obesity is officially described as being a BMI of 30 or greater... give or take depending on body type.

The segment on street signs deals with these very issues and is well worth four and a half minutes of your time.