Mississippi Still Porkiest, but Alabama Closing In

Mississippi's still king of cellulite, but an ominous tide is rolling toward the Medicare doctors in neighboring Alabama: obese baby boomers. It's time for the nation's annual obesity rankings and, outside of fairly lean Colorado, there's little good news. Obesity rates among adults rose in 23 states over the past year and didn't decline anywhere, says a new report.

And while the nation has long been bracing for a surge in Medicare as the boomers start turning 65, the new report makes clear that fat, not just age, will fuel much of those bills. In every state, the rate of obesity is higher among 55- to 64-year-olds—the oldest boomers—than among today's 65-and-beyond. That translates into a coming jump of obese Medicare patients that ranges from 5.2% in New York to 16.3% in Alabama, the report concluded. (More Mississippi stories.)