Obesity has become a crucial health problem for our nation, and these findings show that the medical costs alone reflect the significance of the challenge. Of course, the ultimate cost to Americans is measured in chronic disease and early death. We must take responsibility both as individuals and working together to reduce the health toll associated with obesity.—Tommy G. Thompson, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, commenting on estimates that U.S. obesity-attributable medical expenditures reached $75 billion in 2003 and that taxpayers finance about half of these costs through Medicare and Medicaid, in a press release from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, January 21, 2004

The economic impact of obesity is considerable. The World Bank estimated the cost of obesity in the United States as 12 percent of the national health-care budget in the late 1990s...