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Underscoring the enormous strain that obesity places on our nation’s healthcare system and economy at-large, the National Business Group on Health (NBGH) called on Congress to make important tax changes to encourage employees to participate in employer-sponsored health and wellness programs.

NBGH also released new data from Dr. Kenneth Thorpe documenting the costs associated with obesity.

"While employers have made great strides in emphasizing prevention, health, and wellness, far too many American workers are still obese and placing great strains on the system," said Helen Darling,NBGH president. "Obesity and related complications add hundreds of billions of dollars to our nation’s health tab annually and are pushing our health system – and with it, our economy – to the brink. We urge policymakers to take swift action to make common-sense tax code changes that help encourage workers to take greater advantage of workplace health and wellness programs and develop other programs and policies that will accelerate the reduction in obesity, especially among our vulnerable children."

In the past twenty-five years, adult obesity in the United States has doubled and childhood obesity has tripled. In 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that more than one-third of adults in the United States, over 72 million people, were obese.

A new study released by NBGH, "Weighty Matters: How Obesity Drives Poor Health and Health Spending," conducted by Kenneth Thorpe, Ph.D., Robert W. Woodruff professor and chair, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University and executive director, Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, provides new evidence of the role obesity plays in rising healthcare costs and rates of chronic disease.

Key findings from the study include:

a. The prevalence of 11 chronic conditions associated with overweight and obesity grew 180 percent from 1997 to 2005;

b. Average per capita health spending increased by 40 percent from 1997 to 2005, but the average for the 15 costliest conditions – all associated in some way with obesity – jumped 55 percent;

c. Overall, obesity accounts for 27 percent of the increase in inflation-adjusted health expenditures among working-age adults; and

d. If the prevalence of obesity were the same today as in 1987, healthcare spending in the United States would be about $200 billion less each year.

"These data are fresh evidence of how much obesity contributes to rising healthcare costs and the crushing burden of chronic disease," said Thorpe. "If policymakers are serious about bending the cost curve, the first place to start is with reducing the incidence of obesity and related complications that drive hundreds of billions of dollars annually in avoidable healthcare costs."

NBGH Urges Tax Policy Changes to Encourage Health & Wellness

NBGH said it believes that changes in tax policy are urgently needed to maximize employer adoption and increase employee participation in worksite health and wellness programs. Currently, the tax code treats expenses for medical care and treatment of disease favorably, but not activities and programs designed to prevent disease and maintain health.

This treatment of wellness, fitness, health promotion and weight management programs for employees poses a barrier and disincentive to more comprehensive employer-sponsored wellness programs. The NBGH said it is calling on Congress and the Administration to act on the following proposed changes:

a. Employer contributions toward employee expenses for health and wellness activities, programs and purchases should be excludable from employees’ incomes for tax purposes;

b. Employees should be able to use pre-tax dollars (including through Section 125 cafeteria plans, HSAs and FSAs) to pay for their share of health and wellness activities, programs and purchases including for fitness, nutrition, exercise and weight-management programs; and

c. People should be allowed to deduct post-tax out-of-pocket expenses for health and wellness activities, programs and purchases from their taxes in the same way that they can for medical expenses if their total healthcare and wellness expenses exceed the 7.5 percent adjusted gross income threshold.

Address: National Business Group on Health, 50 F St. NW, Suite 600, Washington DC 20001; (202) 628-9320, www.businessgrouphealth.org.