Changes in healthcare spending attributable to obesity and overweight: payer- and service-specific estimates

BMC Public Health

Table 2 Increase in adult per capita total spending attributable to obesity and overweight in 2016 and 2006, by payer

Insurance category	BMI category	Mean spending difference compared to normal weight ($) 2016	Mean spending difference compared to normal weight ($) 2006
Medicare	Overweight	700.12 [615.527]	− 396.71 [645.569]
	Obese 1	1759.05*** [718.867]	1587.90** [803.166]
	Obese 2	2881.70*** [1018.698]	2189.19** [1140.802]
	Obese 3	3774.82*** [1213.880]	6615.03*** [1540.392]
Medicaid	Overweight	774.95 [755.025]	306.68 [766.943]
	Obese 1	662.26 [847.869]	1121.38 [871.873]
	Obese 2	1541.40 [1105.689]	2621.23** [1163.954]
	Obese 3	2953.68 *** [1199.789]	4324.89*** [1184.332]
Private	Overweight	189.26 [304.958]	486.80 ** [249.337]
	Obese 1	899.426 *** [369.729]	1633.36 *** [315.903]
	Obese 2	1634.05 *** [506.560]	2461,27 *** [466.720]
	Obese 3	2614.93 *** [651.227]	2787.39 *** [599.565]

*p < 0.10 ** p < 0.05 ***p < 0.01
Marginal effects, standard errors between []
For Medicare, the costs for Obese 3 declined markedly from 2006 to 2016 ($6615 to $3775), while increasing for Obese 2 ($2189 to $2882) and Obese 1 ($1588 to $1759). Medicaid exhibited a similar trend for Obese 3, with a large decrease in the marginal cost ($4325 to $2954). Medicaid also showed decreases for Obese 2 ($2621 to $1541) and Obese 1 ($1121 to $662), but the 2016 Obese 2 coefficient and both Obese 1 coefficients were statistically insignificant. For private insurance, spending went down for all three BMI classes, with the largest decrease for Obese 2 ($2461 to $1634)

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