Obesity is often included in the litany of chronic diseases that plague six in 10 Americans — except by Medicare, which currently refuses to cover treatment for obesity until it causes significant health problems like diabetes or heart disease.
The growing number of Americans with obesity is helping drive the chronic disease crisis in the U.S. and deepening existing health inequities. The government’s failure to recognize and treat it like other diseases may be making matters worse. Policymakers need to treat obesity like the disease it is and give health care professionals and their patients access to the tools necessary to treat it.