Health Insurers Won't Cover Obesity Treatments

by Nicole Makris · 2010-09-24 07:00:00 UTC
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Stories of America's obesity epidemic abound, from the First Lady's speeches to Tuesday night's premiere of the 10th season of The Biggest Loser. Earlier this month, President Obama declared September as National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, so it's clear that awareness about America's weight problem has a huge presence in the media.

But for the vast number of Americans who battle with obesity, pop-culture awareness does little to combat the day-to-day struggle of treating the illness. Neither, it turns out, do most health insurance plans. Even though it's all over the news, the obesity epidemic is invisible to insurance companies:  Like pre-existing conditions or so-called voluntary procedures, health insurers don't often cover obesity treatments.

Obesity treatments run the gamut, from therapy, support groups, and behavior modification to complicated dietary recommendations to prescriptions for weight loss drugs to invasive surgeries. But even with so many options available, insurers will actually charge obese patients higher premiums or refuse them coverage entirely if they are obese. Maybe that's why so many folks are lining up to (embarrass themselves) and be the next contestants on Dance Your A** Off. Even stranger is the types of coverage that are provided: Insurers might only pay for last-ditch, extremely intense procedures like gastric bypass surgery, reserved for patients with more than 100 pounds to lose. Or, they'll cover sleep apnea and diabetes treatments, both of which are caused by obesity in some cases. Prevention or treatment while the problem is still relatively treatable get totally left out of many folks' healthcare plans.

We all know that Americans are pretty serious junk food junkies. Sadly, it's pretty simple math: Cheap food that's bad for you minus healthcare that heals the damage it causes equals a growing obesity epidemic. Being overweight or obese sets folks up for a host of serious health problems like cancers, heart disease, high-blood-pressure, type 2 diabetes, and more. Health insurers often get stuck with the bill for these obesity-related diseases. It would benefit insurance companies and Americans if health plans started covering treatment of the root of the problem (obesity), instead of just its eventual effects.

Photo credit: Flickr

Nicole Makris has written for MotherJones.com, AlterNet, and Hyphen Magazine. She aims to shed light on the state of the environment and its direct relation to human health..
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