Posted on 06/27/2012 9:55:53 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
In a move that could significantly expand insurance coverage of weight-loss treatments, a federal health advisory panel on Monday recommended that all obese adults receive intensive counseling in an effort to rein in a growing health crisis in America.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force urged doctors to identify patients with a body mass index of 30 or more — currently 1 in 3 Americans — and either provide counseling themselves or refer the patient to a program designed to promote weight loss and improve health prospects.
Under the current healthcare law, Medicare and most private insurers would be required to cover the entire cost of weight-loss services that meet or exceed the task force's standards.
That could all change Thursday, when the U.S. Supreme Courtis expected to rule on the constitutionality of President Obama's healthcare law, which requires adoption of certain recommendations from the task force, such as this one on obesity.
Few private health insurers now reimburse physicians for weight-loss counseling or pay for programs that patients seek out on their own. A growing number, in fact, charge obese patients more for coverage — a policy that some public health officials have denounced as punitive and ineffective.
The task force concluded after a review of the medical literature that the most successful programs in improving patients' health were "intensive, multicomponent behavioral interventions." They involve 12 to 26 counseling sessions a year with a physician or community-based program, the panel said.
Successful programs set weight-loss goals, improve knowledge about nutrition, teach patients how to track their eating and set limits, identify barriers to change (such as a scarcity of healthful food choices near home) and strategize on ways to maintain lifestyle changes, the panel found.
In some cases, programs include exercise sessions as well.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
It seems that every macronutrient goes through its fifteen minutes of fame being the bad guy responsible for obesity. And it is a very human trait to want simple answers, no matter how complex the problem.
That study discussed in your first link didn’t condemn carbohydrates; it showed that too much consumption of them in relation to the other macronutrients has an effect on belly fat and overall body fat (but not weight). Clearly, we need a balanced diet, one that probably isn’t represented in the food pyramid (obesity rates didn’t stop climbing when it was introduced). The proportions don’t matter as far as overall weight is concerned: people eating huge meals, whose major activity is getting up to go to the refrigerator, are going to gain weight no matter what they eat.
BTW, “the government” makes its recommendations based on what teams of scientists tell them. There is a considerable amount of effort invested in making those recommendations as scientifically accurate as possible. The problem is, we still don’t know all that much. And many scientists are just as prone to looking for an easy answer as anyone else.
With the coming Depression the obesity epidemic will be resolved
The urban liberals had a choice—make the subways bigger or the people smaller. It looks like they are going for door number two. :-)
By process of elimination only younge gay non-white atheists, on a vegatarian diet, will be worthy of living.
We don’t see much of the Surgeon General, do we?
Not much photo ops with the svelte Moochelle
Last I noticed Kagan and Sotomayer were bit on the fluffy side, too
We don’t see much of the Surgeon General, do we?
Not much photo ops with the svelte Moochelle
Last I noticed Kagan and Sotomayer were bit on the fluffy side, too
Eliminate food stamps to anyone who is overweight.
Take away their marijuana,too. Gives them the munchies.
Wow! Another obama jobs program. Just think how many new counselors are going to be needed.
That’s a Sleep Number Bed. Better sign up for the free hearing aid too. You should be able to pick up your paper cone at a government center in just a few short months.
I’m 5 lbs over weight does that make me obese? I’m also short 5’ and 64, so I look like the great grand ma I am.
Can they force me to take drugs that are worse than the diseases I have? I send more drugs back to the pharmacist than I purchase because they are side effect riddled..and I know what they will do to my body. Lets see, Cholesterol drugs..they go back, as they effect muscles, and I have Fibromyalgia, osteoporosis Fosamax...it goes back, 2,000 law suits for degenerative jaw disease and broken femurs, several antibiotics I’ve had bad reactions to go back. Lyrica..it goes back, it causes more PAIN than it helps relieve.
If this law stands can they force me to take these nasty side effect riddled drugs?
Don't even think that I'm kidding.
The public / we need to see the stats on ...
Food Stamps vs. Obesity
The feds and Obama are creating this Obesity dilema. EBT allowance are much higher than any human needs for health survival. It’s like double what one who pays out of their pocket spends on food.
WE HAVE a WINNER!!!
Why not refer the program to them? You can tell a person to go to weight loss counseling, but that won’t make them go. You report the overweight to the Commission, and then send the social workers to them, then you get action.
Oooh, no, the USDA is running commercials now with two older black ladies talking, and it seems that food stamps are PART of a healthy diet that may help to reduce obesity in the US by 2025.
No. A lot of fat people get that way from eating lots of “healthy, whole grains.” Their bellies are known in Wheat Belly circles as, what else, wheat bellies. Eliminating wheat and other grains and carbs from the diet can reduce that wheat belly significantly, with other health improvements as well.
Thanks!
So I should risk heart disease, a return to severe acne problems and diabetes, and maybe even certain cancers, on the off-chance that we might have a famine in this country?
On the other hand, if 0 wins a second term, I just might go back to breads and cereals, and join you at the buffet. I might need to store lost of fat in case he does some hideous executive order on our agricultural sector.
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