Medicare to Cover Obesity Costs

Medicare announced at the end of last week that it would henceforth treat obesity as a disease. This means it will pay for weight loss treatments that have nothing to do with anything else. While this looks like a good idea at first blush, it is difficult to envision a bigger disaster -- except for the weight loss business and drug companies.

Most Americans are overweight, and about one third of adults count as obese. While walking down any street in the US will confirm that the nation has too many fat people, these definitions are not set in stone. Indeed, the US government guidelines on what constitutes over-weight was changed (making more Americans fat by definition) just a few months ago This comes on the heels of the government changing the appropriate cholesterol levels in high risk heart patients to a figure that can only be achieved for some by drugs -- expensive prescription drugs.

Medicare covers those over the age of 65. Most medical experts will attest to the fact that obesity and excessive weight are much more difficult to fight at this age, and the benefits to longevity are far less than if the matter were addressed 40 years earlier. That is not to say that dropping significant weight at 70 isn't a good idea -- rather, it isn't the most effective approach for a society interested in health and long life.

Worst, Medicare can't afford to take on the billions that Americans will spend for this -- as a nation, Americans spend about $40 billion on losing weight. While traditional conservatives will argue that government healthcare isn't as efficient as a government plan, those in favor of such public health programs need to join them. As Jerry Brown, former governor of California and current Mayor of Oakland, said once, "What good is a social program you can't pay for?" Moreover, the conservatives are right in noting that government overpays for health services -- shoes for diabetics cost Medicare ten times what they cost the private providers; foot orthodics are similarly profitable.

In the end, there might be some benefit to the studies that will finally be done to prove certain weightloss programs are effective, hence elegible for Medicare reimbursement. In the end, however, no government program can force Americans to cut down on the fries and 72 ounce Cokes and make them exercise. At best, this will have mixed results. At worst, it will bankrupt Medicare while enriching diet and drug companies -- which might have been the whole idea.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


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