Should Federal Insurance Cover Obesity
July 19, 2004 -- By the time she was 17, Sheila Voorbach weighed well over 200 pounds.
The weight was rapidly pushing Voorbach toward Type 2 Diabetes. Fortunately, her family physician recommended a medication to curb her appetite.
There was one problem — since Medicaid didn't cover obesity treatments, just one bottle of the medication would cost her widowed mother, Monica, $150.
Voorbach started her daughter on the medication until she had lowered her weight to less than 200 pounds. But when Sheila began regaining the weight, "I just couldn't afford to put her back on the medication," Voorbach explains.
A policy change announced by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last Thursday may change all that. Now Medicare and Medicaid could help Voorbach beat her weight and hopefully deter diabetes.
The mother and daughter are not alone in thier plight. For the 75 million Americans on Medicare and Medicaid, this news could be life-changing.
Medicare and Medicaid are designed to cover necessary medical expenses for those who are eligible for federal insurance. In the past, the program manuals have stated that obesity was not an illness, and therefore, obesity treatments would not be reimbursed.
HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson announced that the program would remove that clause, possibly opening the door to obesity treatments for low-income Americans.
For Voorbach, who worries about her daughter getting diabetes, this might be a dream come true.
The new program would "help me out a lot," she says. "With it, [Sheila] will have a better chance to avoid the disease."
Weighing In On Policy
The policy change could allow reimbursements for obesity treatments such as gastric bypass surgery (also known as stomach stapling), exercise and nutritional counseling, and possibly even medications that help people lose weight.
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