WASHINGTON -- Obesity is eating away at American lives and pocketbooks, according to a new government study.

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With more than half of Americans now either overweight or obese, researchers from RTI International in North Carolina and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied a sample of nearly 10,000 adults to determine the health costs of the epidemic.

The study put the cost of treating the health problems of people who are overweight at $93 billion per year. The government picks up about half the tab through Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor.

Overall, spending attributed to excessive weight made up 9 percent of all medical spending in 1998.

The findings are published Wednesday on the Web site of the journal Health Affairs.

The researchers said the financial burden now rivals that of smoking. They said as a result, the government and health insurance companies should offer incentives to help people lose weight.

"There has been a debate about whether obesity is a personal or societal issue and whether the government has any business being involved," said economist Eric Finkelstein, of RTI International. "The fact that the government, and ultimately the taxpayer, is financing half the economic burden of obesity, suggests that the government has a clear justification to try to reduce obesity rates."

The researchers note that many health insurers, including Medicaid, offer smoking cessation treatment as a benefit and some private insurers charge smokers higher rates.

"Obesity is something as costly to society as smoking, yet the government and private health insurers have done very little to reduce obesity rates, partly because politically feasible cost-effective strategies have yet to be identified," Finkelstein said.

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