Illness caused by drinking, obesity, and smoking costs $19.7 million yearly

[Courtesy of mcwyvern]

It is a wide known fact that drinking, obesity, and smoking cause a lot of health problems. It also costs a lot. South Korea used KR\ 23.3 trillion (U.S$ 19.7 million) in 2013 on social costs. It’s almost half of medical costs covered by the national health insurance.

South Korea’s National Health Insurance Service reported on Monday that based on statistics from the year 2103 social cost used to treat illness due to excessive drinking was \9.4 trillion, smoking - \7.1 trillion, and obesity - \6.7 trillion.

According to the report, the social cost combined, is 45.8 % of all the medical costs covered by the national’s health insurance and the numbers have been rising since 2005. Especially, illness caused by obesity had risen by 222%, recording the steepest rise when compared to smoking (162% rise), and drinking (156% rise).

Males were more vulnerable to the illnesses than females. In 2013, over \17 trillion won was spent as social costs when \6.2 trillion was spent of females.

아주경제 박세진 기자 = swatchsjp@ajunews.com

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com

Illness caused by drinking, obesity, and smoking costs $19.7 million yearly

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