In Policy Shift, Federal Government To Treat Obesity As A Disease (article source: SuperMarketGuru.com)

For years, society's message to the overweight and obese has been that their condition is a result of either personal choice or a flaw in their characters. But now, the federal government is taking the opposite position - that obesity is a disease.

This shift in position is stated in a decision by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which has announced that it will no longer routinely deny financial coverage for people who pay for legitimate weight loss therapies.

In announcing the change, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said, "Obesity is a critical public health problem in our country that causes millions of Americans to suffer unnecessary health problems and die prematurely. With this new policy, Medicare will be able to review scientific evidence in order to determine which interventions improve health outcomes for seniors and disabled Americans who are obese."

The decision by the federal government is expected to have a kind of domino effect among private health insurers, which typically pattern their decisions about what to cover and not to cover after the Medicare rules.

Predictably, the shift in federal policy was lauded by some, denounced by others, and said by some to be not enough.

The most applause seemed to come from organizations already working to help obese Americans deal with their weight problems. For example, Louis J. Aronne, president-elect of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, told the Washington Post , "The lack of recognition of obesity as a disease has cast a pall over the field. Now Medicare is saying obesity deserves treatment like any other disease."

But that wasn't the reaction among people who believe that the government decision actually rejects the notion of personal responsibility, compelling insurance companies to cover (at greater cost to all) a physical condition that they believe is eminently preventable by more trips to the salad bar and fewer to the dessert tray. "This is truly a dumbing-down of the term 'disease.' This is the only disease that I'm familiar with that you can solve by regularly taking long walks and keeping your mouth shut," Rick Berman, executive director of the Center for Consumer Freedom, a food-industry-funded advocacy group, said in a statement. "It's terrible to start using taxpayer money like this when there are other legitimate diseases that need to be addressed."

As for those who believe this is too timid approach - well, you can count among them Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who is pushing for a federal response that helps to prevent obesity through better labeling, restrictions of certain kinds of food advertising, and improved screening services.

We believe that this decision, which enables obese people to get help in ways that are more available and affordable, is a good one - and that any attempts by the food industry to reverse it on the grounds that it destroys the notion of "personal responsibility" are absurd. The obesity-related costs that we all share under the existing system are never going to be surpassed by those generated by insurance and Medicare coverage of obesity treatments.

There was a time that alcoholism and drug addiction were viewed as character flaws, not diseases. Time and research has amply demonstrated that this is not true, and we as a society are better off for having confronted the truths about these addictions and dealt with them in a humane way that takes away the stigma of personal failure. And the same thing should apply to people who are addicted to food.

People are still free to make choices - whether to eat a specific food or not, whether to seek treatment or not, whether to be rigorous in the pursuit of a healthful lifestyle or not. But as a culture, we are better for having helped these people make the right choices, and being there to support them on what can be a difficult road.