Health care cost are more expensive for the overweight and the obese.  The overly obese needs special equipment to move them from their homes to medical facilities.  Sometimes fire trucks has to be rented and changes have to be made to doors to get the obese to get the medical help they need.  It is not surprising, taking in all of the precautionary measures to even get the obese to the medical facilities the spiraling health care costs that awaits for the actual medical treatment itself.

Medical facilities in Topeka, Kansas now use specially medical equipped transportation vehicles to get the obese to medical facilities. Specially medical equipped indicates that more costly medical equipment is on board that would not necessarily have to be used if a person was carried who was not obese. Being obese is different and more tragic than being overweight but both conditions have health risks. Emergency equipped vehicles responding to medical emergencies away from the medical should be warned that the patient who they are coming to help is obese so that medical help will not be delayed because of the logistics of getting the patient on the medically equipped transportation vehicles and to the health care facility for treatment.

Stretchers are not equipped for the obese and emergency vehicles are not equipped for the entrance of the seriously obese. In the Topeka, Kansas case of having to transport a 1,000 pound man to the medical facility, a forklift had to be ordered to lift the entire bed out of the house with the patient on it. Forklifts do not come as a standard expense of medical facilities and posed an added cost to the medical facility that most likely added the increased medical cost to the obese patent's insurance company. The obese patient's insurance premium was increased if the patient had insurance and in other ways the other insurers had to bare the burden of increased health care costs.

Embarrassment of the 1,000 pound patient having to be onloaded to a medical vehicles with a forklift and then having to be offloaded at the medical care facilities was the least of a problem. The bigger problem was the more expensive medical cost and the resultant increased medical premiums that not only affected the patient but the premiums of the other insurers. Health care cost is more expensive for the overweight. Critically ill overweight or obese patient medical attention is delayed also because of the extra procedures, equipment and service needed to transport the patient to get the medical help needed.

Medical officials in Kansas are saying that health care becomes more expensive when the patient reaches 350 pounds or more. Most medical equipment is manufactured to accommodate medical patients up to 350 pounds and less. Extra medical professionals are needed to care for the overweight and the obese that makes health care more expensive. Medical facilities have to charge higher medical fees when attending to patients who are overweight or obese to reduce the cost of the facilities having to perform more out of the line medical procedures just like the example in Kansas, to get the patient from their bed.

Some medical facilities have procured manufactured equipment that is designed to carry and attend medically to the obese and to the overweight. Specially designed medical equipment makes the health care more expensive because the cost has to be considered over and above the medical equipment that is usually used. These medically facilities responding to the need for larger specially designed medical equipment by purchasing plus-sized bed, wheelchairs, walkers and even commodes. Medical facilities would like insurance providers to help shoulder the cost of the more expensive health care costs of the overweight and the obese. These added specially designed equipment of larger dimensions are cutting through the profit margins that is reported as being razor thin. Medical facilities are looking for ways to recover the cost of the special health care and medical equipment needed for the overweight and the obese. The medical cost is presently two and a half times more that what is usually needed by a person who is less than 350 pounds.

Nearly one third of Americans are obese with five percent being morbidly obese which means weighing more than one hundred pounds above a healthy weight paradigm.

Health care is available regardless of the size of the patient and some seriously obese patients have problems that causes them to be in the condition. The more expensive medical health care cost to care for the obese is necessary to accommodate for the size of the patient and for the added care needed because of the mobility issues that are involved.