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Study links food insecurity to additional $53 billion in annual health care costs

A new study shows Americans spend nearly $53 billion dollars more on health care each year because of food insecurity.

“That’s roughly 5% of total annual health care expenditures in our country.”

Craig Gundersen with the University of Illinois co-authored the study funded by Feeding America where they found a food insecure adult spends $1800 more on health care each year than a food secure adult.

“For any number of reasons. We know that food insecure households have more chronic conditions that they are exposed to. This requires more visits to a doctor. We know that Asthma cases are higher among food insecure households. All of these things add up to that higher cost.”

Gundersen says the goal of the study has been to highlight the impact of food insecurity on health care costs, provide data at a local level and further emphasize the importance of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to the 40 million Americans who live in food insecure households.

The study estimated health care costs associated with food insecurity for each state in 2016 :

Illinois: more than $1.9 billion or $149 per person.

Indiana: nearly $1.2 billion or $166 per person.

Iowa: nearly $3.8 million or $121 per person.

Missouri: just over $1 billion or $173 per person.

Minnesota: more than $5.4 million or $100 per person.

Michigan: more than $1.8 billion or $182 per person.

Wisconsin: nearly $6.9 million or $119 per person.

Ohio: more than $2.2 billion or $193 per person.

South Dakota: nearly $100 million or $117 per person.

Nebraska: nearly $2.6 million or $137 per person.

Arkansas: more than $5.6 million or $190 per person.

Tennessee: nearly $1.2 billion or $182 per person.

Details of the study and state specific information can be found here.

Interview with Craig Gundersen

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