With the declaration by the American Medical Association (AMA) that obesity is a disease, more than 35% percent of U.S. adults and 17% percent of children and teens now have an official medical label. While this may provide clinicians and patients the validation and wherewithal needed to address the underlying causes of obesity — ie, nutritional deficiencies, disease/conditions, toxicity, stress, and emotional trauma, as well as the consequences (such as diabetes) that reining in obesity will avoid — I am feeling disgruntled a condition that for many people is a self-control issue now will be subject to the vagaries of the existing (and soon-to-be-inaugurated) healthcare system, and potentially further stress an already VERY stressed economy.
New York Times’ writer Andrew Pollack believes “medicalizing” obesity would define one third of Americans as being ill (is that what you want? I’m not overweight, I’m sick?) and could lead to more reliance on costly drugs and surgery rather than lifestyle changes. Documentarian and author James Colquhoun says education, not medical intervention, is critical to providing a lasting solution. My thought exactly.
But someone, please tell us, what is the definition of obesity? Melissa Francis on her news show last night beseeched medical weight loss specialist Dr. Sue DeCotiis to provide parameters for who is too-many-Oreos overweight and who is medically obese, and the guest sidestepped the question (perhaps because she seemed to qualify as the Big O. That might be mean. Sorry).
Part of me wonders whether this new “declaration” will allow overeaters to flaunt Obamacare as I-don’t-care — I’ll eat, I’ll get fat, the government will take care of me. I’m pondering the possibility that if the system should ever short-circuit itself regarding pre-existing conditions and you have been deemed to be obese whether you could be denied coverage. Will treatment (and reimbursement) be structured as it is in wound care — ie, you try the least invasive/expensive interventions before bringing out the big guns of advanced technology, which means you have to demonstrate proof of diet and exercise before you get your belly band surgery? Did anyone think any of this through?
I feel sorry for people who have conditions that render them obese, such as children with Prader-Willi syndrome, people for whom obesity has nothing to do with ignoring doctor’s orders. Pun intended: I invite readers to weigh in on the motivation for and execution of this latest, for now, for me, insanity.
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