How to save $15 billion in health care costs?
A study published in Health Affairs (September 8) says the U.S. government could do it by investing in weight loss programs to help prevent diabetes and heart disease over the lifetime of a group of baby boomers aged 60 to 64.
Emory health policy experts Kenneth Thorpe and Zhou Zang at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health led the research that proposes expanding a successful program developed by the CDC, YMCAs across the country, and most recently, the private insurance company UnitedHealth Group. According to their estimates, such a program has shown that participants in this age bracket can lose weight and reduce the risk of developing diabetes by up to 71%.
