By Erin Maxson & Andrea Calcagno
 
July 30, 2009
 
MEDFORD, Ore. -- Amid new research showing that medical spending averages $1,400 more a year for an obese person than for someone who's normal weight, a Medford gym is trying to do it's part combat that.
 
At Medford's CrossFit Allegiance, members don't use exercise machines like treadmills. Instead they throw around sand bags, do pull-ups, box jumps, and squats.
 
The research shows overall obesity-related health spending reaches $147 billion, double what it was nearly a decade ago, says the study published Monday by the journal Health Affairs.
 
The higher expense reflects the costs of treating diabetes, heart disease and other ailments far more common for the overweight, concluded the study by government scientists and the nonprofit research group RTI International.
 
The new Health Affairs study found obesity-related conditions now account for 9.1 percent of all medical spending, up from 6.5 percent in 1998. During that time, the obesity rate rose 37 percent.
 
On average, health bills for a normal-weight person are about $3,400 a year, but that rises to $4,870 for someone who's obese, RTI Health Economist Finkelstein said. Prescription drugs are the biggest driver of those costs: Medicare spends about $600 more per year on medications for an obese beneficiary than a normal-weight one.
 
"We're seeing diabetes in our teens and their 20s, verses in their 50s and 60s. And you can imagine having to take care of a diabetic for that many more years and how much more that would cost," Family Nurse Practitioner Elizabeth Rowley said.