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The medical care costs of obesity and severe obesity in youth: An instrumental variables approach
Author(s) -
Biener Adam I.,
Cawley John,
Meyerhoefer Chad
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
health economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1099-1050
pISSN - 1057-9230
DOI - 10.1002/hec.4007
Subject(s) - instrumental variable , obesity , medical prescription , externality , medical expenditure panel survey , medicine , government (linguistics) , intervention (counseling) , health care , environmental health , childhood obesity , body mass index , medical care , gerontology , family medicine , psychiatry , economics , nursing , economic growth , overweight , linguistics , philosophy , pathology , health insurance , econometrics , microeconomics
This paper is the first to use the method of instrumental variables to estimate the impact of obesity and severe obesity in youth. on U.S. medical care costs. We examine data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey for 2001–2015 and instrument for child BMI using the BMI of the child's biological mother. Instrumental variables estimates indicate that obesity in youth raises annual medical care costs by $907 (in 2015 dollars) or 92%, which is considerably higher than previous estimates of the association of youth obesity with medical costs. We find that obesity in youth significantly raises costs in all major categories of medical care: outpatient doctor visits, inpatient hospital stays, and prescription drugs. The costs of youth obesity are borne almost entirely by third‐party payers, which is consistent with substantial externalities of youth obesity, which in turn represents an economic rationale for government intervention.