How to Save $6000 a Year

Want to learn how to save $6000 per year in health expenses? Allow me to tell you about an interesting article from Journal of the American Medical Association relating being overweight in young/middle age to Medicare expenditures in older age. The study looked at Medicare data from 1984-2002 with baseline data from 1967-1973 for 9978 men and 7623 women (ages 33-64) who did NOT have heart disease or diabetes and were either normal weight (BMI 18.5-24.9), overweight (BMI 25-29.9), obese (BMI 30-34.9) or severely obese (BMI>35). After the authors had adjusted for age, race, education, and smoking, they found some very amazing difference in annual and cumulative charges for men and women:

Women
Normal Weight: $6224 annual costs and $76866 cumulative costs
Overweight: $7653 annual costs and $100959 cumulative costs
Obese: $9612 annual costs and $125470 cumulative costs
Severely obese: $12342 annual costs and $174752 cumulative costs

Men
Normal Weight: $7205 annual costs and / $100431 cumulative costs
Overweight: $8930 annual costs and $109098 cumulative costs
Obese: $10128 annual costs and $119318 cumulative costs
Severely obese: $13674 annual costs and $176947 cumulative costs

Bottom line, eating healthy and exercising regularly can help save you as much as $6000 in annual healthcare expenditures in your old age
So get up and go for a run, it may be the best investment you ever make.