I am reaching out today to urge you to prioritize the health of people affected by obesity in our state. I am calling on you to urgently review and remedy the dangerous and far-reaching impacts resulting from our current failure to treat the disease of obesity in a comprehensive manner. It’s time to eliminate the random and unscientific barriers to obesity care and adopt a more comprehensive and accessible benefit approach.
Today, more than 130 million Americans are affected by obesity. Despite increased scientific understanding of the disease of obesity, many policymakers and society as a whole continue to view obesity as a lifestyle choice or personal failing. These attitudes are rooted in bias - not science - and have failed us. There are evidence-based, FDA-approved treatments for people with obesity that mitigate the impacts of the disease and improve health outcomes. But our system remains fractured and coverage options for obesity treatments are only available for a lucky few who live in the right zip code or work for the right employer. For more information about how obesity is impacting our state please visit State Obesity Fact Sheets - Obesity Action Coalition.
I strongly urge you to review coverage of evidence-based obesity treatment options in our state’s health plans, including Medicaid, plans offered under the Affordable Care Act, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and state employee plans. Each of these plans should offer behavioral, nutrition and mental health counseling for obesity as well as access to FDA approved anti-obesity medications and bariatric surgery when appropriate. It is important that plans offer all these services without significant barriers as comprehensive care is the key to success in addressing obesity. It’s time to acknowledge obesity for the chronic disease that it is and take steps to treat it in the same serious fashion as other chronic disease states such as diabetes and hypertension. Now is the time to prioritize obesity care and stop weight bias.
Thank you for your support.