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The Big Fat Truth
Is Obesity a Disease? By Carma Haley Shoemaker
There are just as many differing insurance plans as there are providers. Just type in "insurance" in any Internet search engine and approximately 500 matches will be found. Companies are usually responsible for finding and implementing their own insurance plans based on what is available to them, the majority of which do not consider or cover obesity as a disease.
For example, a typical employer insurance plan could be similar to that of Wal-Mart. Benefits listed in Wal-Mart's employee benefits booklet (Wal-Mart Employee Benefits Manual, 2000) as "not payable for treatment or services" include charges from medications and diet supplements which result from diet programs, appetite control, weight control and treatment of obesity or morbid obesity, including gastric bypasses and stapling procedures, even if the participant has other health conditions which might be helped by the reduction of weight.
"I've learned quite a bit about insurance companies and their coverage guidelines," says Costa. "It is extremely alarming that the insurance companies would pay for coverage in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for surgeries caused by obesity, rather than to pay for a medically-supervised weight loss program at a fraction of the cost."
"Obesity may be a symptom of an illness, but I don't think being obese is a disease by itself," says Hilary Evans, a stay-at-home mom of three from Fort Dodge, Iowa. "There are so many health problems that come from being too heavy that maybe it should be treated as a health risk. As for being covered by insurance, surgery shouldn't be covered unless several other treatments have been attempted first. For most people, being overweight is caused by eating more calories than they burn; surgery alone isn't going to solve that."
