Doctors/Big Pharma Hit The Lottery: Medicare redefines obesity as medical

[Guest guest]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-07-15-medicare-obesity_x.htm

 

Medicare redefines obesity as medical

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

In a major decision that turns obesity from a personal

failure to a medical problem, Medicare announced

Thursday that it would remove barriers to covering

anti-obesity treatments after 40 years of saying fat

was not an illness and not covered.

 

The change, disclosed by Health and Human Services

Secretary Tommy Thompson at a Senate hearing, could

open the program to covering surgery to shrink the

stomach and intensive in- and outpatient programs at

hospitals that provide diet and exercise management.

Medicare, a government insurance program, provides

medical coverage for more than 40 million Americans 65

and older as well as those with disabilities. The

change suggests that private insurers likely will feel

pressure to provide similar coverage.

 

" It will put more pressure on them in terms of medical

and surgical procedures, " says health financing

researcher John Newman of Georgia State University.

 

More than 60% of Americans are overweight, and about

30% are obese. In the Medicare population, 37% are

overweight and 18% are obese. Obesity contributes to

diabetes, heart disease, cancer and arthritis. It also

is believed responsible for about 300,000 deaths a

year. " Treating obesity-related illnesses and

complications adds billions of dollars to the nation's

health care costs, " Thompson told a Senate

subcommittee.

 

Previously, Medicare's Coverage Issues Manual said

obesity was not an illness, and by law, only illnesses

and injury could be covered. The new HHS language

stops short of calling obesity a disease, which would

have required Medicare to pay for treatments. But the

change removes the reference to obesity not being an

illness. That means approval of treatments is

possible, but only if scientific research proves them

effective and a national Medicare panel agrees. So

coverage won't change immediately. HHS officials say

they can't predict what this will cost Medicare

because they don't know yet what it will be asked to

cover.

 

" Medical science will now determine whether we provide

coverage for the treatments that reduce complications

and improve quality of life for the millions of

Medicare beneficiaries who are obese, " says Mark

McClellan, administrator of the Center for Medicare &

Medicaid Services.

 

The new language won't extend coverage to weight-loss

drugs. What it will do is tell the public " that this

is something that needs to be medically dealt with, "

says Carlos Hamilton, president of the American

Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. " It's not

just a lifestyle or a habit issue. "

[Guest guest]

After eliminating natural slimming products - ephedra and others -

from the market,

 

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2004/01/29/fda_eyes_natural_slimming_aids.h\

tm

 

now the floodgates open for pharmaceutical intervention against the

" obesity epidemic " . Big business starts in on the problem and we're

all going to be more medicated in the future...

 

Sepp

 

 

 

>http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-07-15-medicare-obesity_x.htm

>

>Medicare redefines obesity as medical

>By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY

>In a major decision that turns obesity from a personal

>failure to a medical problem, Medicare announced

>Thursday that it would remove barriers to covering

>anti-obesity treatments after 40 years of saying fat

>was not an illness and not covered.

>

>The change, disclosed by Health and Human Services

>Secretary Tommy Thompson at a Senate hearing, could

>open the program to covering surgery to shrink the

>stomach and intensive in- and outpatient programs at

>hospitals that provide diet and exercise management.

>Medicare, a government insurance program, provides

>medical coverage for more than 40 million Americans 65

>and older as well as those with disabilities. The

>change suggests that private insurers likely will feel

>pressure to provide similar coverage.

 

 

 

--

 

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