Waistline Expansion Will See Huge Rise in Healthcare Costs

Obesity will cost $550 billion from now to 2030, says study

(CNN) — America is getting fatter, according to a new report, and bulging waistlines will rack up big health care expenditures within the next two decades.

The report, from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, draws on previously published government data to make predictions about what consequences an upward obesity trend would have for individual states.

It also projects that the health of the country—and the dollars spent on the health care system—would benefit from even a 5% reduction in the average body mass index. The report is called "F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2012."