That is about 1/2 of the California budget deficit. Think about how many bike lanes and sidewalks we could build with $7.7 billion a year in California.

By Mark Niesse
Associated Press

ATLANTA - Taxpayers pay the doctor's bill for more than half of obesity-related medical costs, which reached a total of $75 billion in 2003, according to a new study.

The public pays about $39 billion a year - or about $175 per person - for obesity through Medicare and Medicaid programs, which cover sicknesses caused by obesity including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, several kinds of cancer and gallbladder disease.

The study, to be published Friday in the journal Obesity Research, evaluates state-by-state expenditures related to weight problems. The research was done by the non-profit group RTI International and the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.

"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,'' said Tommy Thompson, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. "Of course, the ultimate cost to Americans is measured in chronic disease and early death."

States spend about one-twentieth of their medical costs on obesity - from a low of 4 percent in Arizona to a high of 6.7 percent in Alaska.

California spends the most on health care for the obese, $7.7 billion, and Wyoming spends the least, $87 million.