Diagnosis: You're Fat

In a recent CBS News article it is reported that some researchers are now stating that with the current trend of obesity rising in America, the average life expectancy could drop from two to five years from the current 77.6 years. "We think today's younger generation will have shorter and less healthy lives than their parents for the first time in modern history unless we intervene," Olshansky said in the article. Clearly there is a problem. But what should the solution be. As many Americans continue to doom themselves to shorter a lifespan I suggest that everyone is forced to evaluate their own decisions. With obesity now being covered by Medicare, we need to find a cost effective way to treat this so called “disorder”. My personal opinion is that instead of spending public funds on medication we reevaluate the situation and simply be more coercive that exercise may have the smallest incremental cost effectiveness for every year of life that it will save.