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In this election year, one party wants you to think it's all about the economy---dumb. The other party wants you to think it's all about fairness and parity---also dumb. But, both parties have acknowledged that healthcare and it's out of control costs are the real main event.

According to a congressional report, P.R. Orszag, Growth in Health Care Costs: Statement Before the Committee on the Budget, United States Senate, Healthcare costs doubled from 1996 to 2006, and are projected to rise to 25% of GDP in 2025 and 49% in 2082. Although the average time a person needs to stay in a hospital for treatment has fallen over the past ten years, the average cost of a day in the hospital is over $4,000, nearly doubling in the past 10 years.

Another interesting fact is that the obesity rate has been climbing steadily each year for the past few years, despite a national obsession with weight loss and weight loss related products and programs.

Researchers at Perdue University have conducted a study which proved a link between these two factors. That link is that the heavier the person is during their hospital stay, the longer is the stay itself.

Sociologists found a direct relationship between obesity and duration and frequency of hospital stays. The study showed that, on average, obese persons stayed one and a half days longer than those with normal weight. Sociologists attribute the connection to obesity-related disease. The researchers also note that the longer a person has been obese, the more likely their hospital stay is lengthened even further beyond the point now argued.

"Obese people, on average, stay at least one to one and a half days longer than a normal-weight individual," said Ken Ferraro, Ph.D., a sociologist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.

The main reason for extra hospitalizations is disease. Forty-six percent of obese adults in the study had high blood pressure, and obese adults who have been overweight since childhood and carried extra weight into adulthood pay the highest price for being heavy.

"The longer the person is obese, the longer their stay in the hospital," Dr. Ferraro said.

Tackling obesity at a young age is crucial to staying out of the hospital later on. Research has proven that studies, such as the Perdue University Study, shows that a more effective use of healthcare dollars would be on the preventative side. Instead of eliminating gym and physical education programs at schools, they should be expanded. Just as cigarettes and alcohol are more expensive due to their propensity to cause more public harm than good, sin taxes should be levied on fast food chains, and ice cream trucks should have to compete directly with salad carts which are subsidized by the government.

Many other countries have come up with novel ways to fight obesity. While some of these ideas may seem extreme, in a country with the highest hospital costs, we may need to follow the examples of some other countries. In Japan, health officials check the waistlines of citizens over 40, and those considered too fat undergo diet counseling. Failure to slim down can lead to fines. New Zealand has rules barring people it deems too fat from immigrating to the country.

In Great Britain-where 60% of men and 50% of women are expected to be obese by mid-century residents of some cities are being recruited to wear electronic tracking tags to calculate how much they move each day and how many calories they burn. Daily exercisers will be rewarded with store coupons and even days off from work. Britain's National Health Service is paying for at least 30,000 people to take weight-loss classes.

Germany plans to spend $47 million on healthy-eating and sports programs and to set tougher nutritional standards for school lunches. The government also is asking candy makers to stop targeting young children and encouraging software companies to develop games that force players to move.