The financial difference could be easily explained because of the health care system (not the obesity).
Why is the U.S. healthcare system so expensive? Administrative costs, marketing and profits account for 22 to 31 percent of the U.S. healthcare dollar (I recently heard Edward Kennedy say these costs were 33 percent, but I have not seen documentation of that number). By contrast, overhead costs in single-payer systems (including Medicare) typically are 3 percent.
That alone could lead to that extra 5% that the United States has in healthcare costs relative to other countries.
This isn't R&D costs.
Yes, it's true obesity in America is the highest in the developed world, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't have universal health care.
I know obese people. Some of them have insurance. Some of them don't. When an obese person has insurance, and they start having breathing problems or feel pains that non-obese people wouldn't feel, they see a doctor. The doctor then gives them a pep talk, lays it out to them, makes it clear the consequences. They become scared and they then change their diet and start exercising. The ones that don't have insurance, they just ride it out until something really bad happens, and its usually too late.
I would be interested to see what the correlation is between a lack of insurance and obesity? I bet it's really high.
They can call it what they want. So long as they pass it so my kids can get some decent health care. Even with insurance, I can't afford to pay for all the extras that the insurance don't cover. Especially dental.
2 things: 1) the statistics don't take into account differences in diet and the correlation to life expectancy, 2) it also doesn't take into account the manner in which the free market drives medical research, even when it doesn't maximize return (tax dollars) to the government (which is the way medicine is doled out in many of those countries).
Research performed in other countries is also to an extent, predicated on the ability of those companies to sell their breakthrough to the U.S. for the higher gain. In effect the free market works to subsidize domestic and foreign medical advances.
Your treatment of the issue is hopelessly superficial.