(NPR) Calling Obesity A Disease May Make It Easier To Get Help

Under the Affordable Care Act, more insurance plans are expected to start covering the cost of obesity treatments, including counseling on diet and exercise as well as medications and surgery. These are treatments that most insurance companies don’t cover now.

This move is a response to the increasing number of health advocates and medical groups that say obesity should be classified as a disease.

Not everyone thinks this is a good idea. But this summer, the American Medical Association determined that . They followed in the footsteps of the , a health advocacy group that called obesity a disease back in 2008.

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2 comments on “(NPR) Calling Obesity A Disease May Make It Easier To Get Help

  1. Adam 12 says:

    It would be nice if a decision such as this one would be made by an organization that did not have a financial interest in the outcome.

  2. Katherine says:

    Obesity is a condition which may or may not be caused by an underlying disease or disease treatment. It’s not a disease in and of itself. They ought to alter the nutrition advice they give people. I followed the low-fat high-grain diet for years and kept gaining weight. Switched last year to low-carb, never mind the fat (within reason), and the weight is melting off and the pre-diabetic diagnosis is gone.