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Campaign to End Obesity: Prevention yields long-term savings

Issue: June 2013

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According to the results of a study released by the Campaign to End Obesity, the current 10-year scoring model used by the Congressional Budget Office to estimate the costs and savings of federal health legislation fails to demonstrate the long-term budgetary effect of preventive health strategies for obesity.

During a teleconference, economist Alex Brill, PhD, criticized the current 10-year model. Brill said the Congressional Budget Office examines the total costs of a policy being considered, whether it is on the revenue side or the outlay side. The costs are projected over a 10-year budget window.

“What this paper describes and what I firmly believe is that obesity policy and interventions that could curb or reduce the rates of obesity qualify as the type of policy that may have potentially very different long-term budgetary consequences than they do in the short term,” Brill said. “… Policymakers who are only allowed to see the relatively short-term, 10-year costs are blinded from the potential long-term benefits that these interventions may provide.”

The report attempts to quantify and provide examples of how long-term benefits may accumulate over a 75-year period, he said.

According to a press release, the key findings are:

• Obesity screening by physicians, which is recommended by the US Preventive Services Task Force and is now required by the Affordable Care Act, could yield as much as $44 billion in long-term federal savings.
• The S-CHIP childhood obesity demonstration project, which combines changes in preventive care at doctor visits with community and school efforts to prevent and reduce childhood obesity in low-income communities, could produce as much as $41 billion in long-term federal savings.
• Long-term federal savings from the Diabetes Prevention Program, which sets weight-loss goals for participants through physical activity and healthy eating habits, may amount to as much as $18.4 billion.
• Weight-loss drugs under Medicare Part D could yield long-term federal savings of as much as $11.4 billion.

For more information on the report, visit: http://obesitycampaign.org.