Obesity Poll

Johanne1957

One.


Jobs that make you sit on your asss for 9 hours a day should help pay for obesity treatment/help.

If you have a job where you sit all day, most employers will allow you to have a standing desk if you'd like, which keeps you more active. If you can't have a standing desk, eat less food and don't eat over your TDEE, it's pretty simple, not the employer's responsibility, because if you make the argument that they should have to pay because you are obese, then by that logic, they should have a say in what foods you eat and how much...

This^^^
I Agree...we need to be responsible for our own health...no body pushes the food down our throats...and if employers are responsible for our obesity, then, yes, they should have a say in what we eat and how much...makes sense...we work to earn money...we should work on our body to earn health...

DancesWithBirds

One.

To me, it makes sense, anyway. It is in the best interest of government and private companies to support the fight against obesity. When you lower obesity, you lower risk for other diseases that can affect insurance rates and employee productivity. My husband's employer offers reimbursement for gym memberships as a benefit. Why? Because it is in their best interest to encourage their employees to take care of themselves physically. This is especially true of physically demanding jobs where greater physical fitness may mean less injuries.

I was just talking to a friend about this yesterday. Invest in your health now and reap the benefits later when you spend less time sick. Isn't it the same for the government and for employers? Theoretically, that is.

ETA: Having a desk job doesn't necessarily make you fat, and having a physically active job doesn't keep you skinny. I gained 100% of my weight while working at my physically demanding job and I didn't start to lose it until after I quit my job and started eating better and exercising. My husband lost a little weight initially when he switched from a desk job to a physically demanding one, but he really has to work hard to keep losing; it doesn't just happen naturally. There are definitely other factors involved.

garber6th

Obesity is a life choice, not a disease.

That is really simplifying a complicated issue. I am not sure people wake up every day and say hey, I wanna be morbidly obese. There are definitely contributing factors, some psychological, some environmental, and probably a certain dose of a wth attitude. That being said, at some point we have to take responsibility for our health. I am obese (for now), but I wouldn't be opposed to paying higher insurance premiums. I got myself into this mess, now I am getting myself out of it. Fortunately I have no major health issues so I don't think my health care expenses are exorbitant like others. I also think smokers, drinkers, and drug users should pay higher premiums. People who make certain choices have to pay the price on all sorts of levels.


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farmer50340

I am a fat guy. I am lucky enough to not be a fat guy because of a medical issue, rather I am a fat guy because I spent 12 years eating junk, doing nothing of substance, and making poor decisions. I'm a fat guy because I made those choices. Now, I'm a slightly less fat, fat guy because I'm making better decisions. That change didn't come from scare tactics from the doctor, or because someone said I had a disease, that change came because I was tired of being a fat guy. I find the more things are regulated or pushed on us, the more likely we are to ignore the advice/edict.

Kettle_Belle14

I'm mixed. I think that, although it is a private issue, if an employer or the government helps to support healthy lifestyles (rather than simply treating illness), we might get a little further in this fight (my employer has had positive results, by not actually punishing obesity, but rather rewarding healthy living: ie. free weight watchers membership, free employee fitness center, free smoking cessation, free nutritional conseling, etc.)
It does need to be classified as a disease in so much that it requires specific treatments and sometimes medical personel to treat it---but NOT that it's something you couldn't avoid and just 'caught' by no fault of your own. Maybe if it's now called a 'disease' and doctors aren't afraid of offending someone by telling them that their obesity can honestly kill them, then just maybe people might start doing something about it.

Pretty much my thoughts. Well said!

cingle87

Im firmly in the camp of I did this to myself, so its upto me to sort it out. Im lucky enough to live in the UK and have access to the wonderful thing that is the NHS, for all its faults that some people my state, I have nothing but respect and gratitude for the NHS.

One thing that gets on my nerves as a TAX paying person (cue the witch hunt after these sentances) I do not believe its the responability of the NHS to sort out the problem I have cause myself. Im sick of seeing in the news paper and on the new about such and such abody has a gastric band, stomach staple and all many of things to help them loose weight. I would love to have taken the easy road and have my stomach done, but why should tax paying individuals have to pay for my mistakes? Sort your own life out and not look for others to do it for you.

For those of us to live in the UK will have read about the worlds fattest teen, not going to name or going to into much details, shes has had surgery on the NHS, paid for Fat camp in america, stays in hospital, but she still put on wait. Why should I have to pay for her to have this sort of treatment if she doesnt want to help her self?

To summarise, my whole point about the above rant in my opinion It was my choice to get like this, its my responability to sort it out

Queue the witch hunt

Alphastate

C: I'm not sure how you see that as a defensive response? Unless I am misunderstanding something.

C isn't even relevant to the question. The question asks, "How do you feel about..." and most people choose to respond, "Stay out of my life!"

Lovdiamnd

I chose to use a letter instead of a number... did that confuse you? C is option 3 is it not? Correct "Stay out of my life!" would be the my response. Not was the government was intended for.

Alphastate

I chose to use a letter instead of a number... did that confuse you? C is option 3 is it not? Correct "Stay out of my life!" would be the my response. Not was the government was intended for.

I think you're still confused. Option C or 3, however you chose, isn't even relevant to the question. How do you feel about some organization classifying something as a medical condition? And the answer is stay out of my life? How does that answer the question of how you feel about something? You like it, you hate it, or you don't care. There aren't too many other reasonable responses. Choosing to immediately say, "Stay out of my life" shows defensiveness. It's like saying, "It's none of your business what I define to be obese." That can be taken as a good response or bad response, but either way it's defensive.

sweetpea129

2

AbsoluteNG

Obesity is a condition. It is not a disease. There is no microbe or pathogen that causes this.

That being said, and someone may have already posted this, one reason for declaring a condition to be a disease is that it changes how the insurance companies in the US handle payments. Stupid IMHO but whatever.

Heart disease and liver disease are not caused by a virus, bacteria, or parasite either.

Carol_L

Obesity is a condition. It is not a disease. There is no microbe or pathogen that causes this.

That being said, and someone may have already posted this, one reason for declaring a condition to be a disease is that it changes how the insurance companies in the US handle payments. Stupid IMHO but whatever.

Heart disease and liver disease are not caused by a virus, bacteria, or parasite either.

Ever heard of Rhumatic Fever? It's caused by a Streptococcus pyogenes (which happens to be a gram positive bacteria), and some of the nice little side effects involve myocarditis which can manifest as congestive heart failure with shortness of breath, pericarditis with a rub, or a new heart murmur.

How about Diptheria?

43932452

I choose number 3. Quit trying to legislate my live to death!

Another vote on 3 and agree with ↑.

AbsoluteNG

Obesity is a condition. It is not a disease. There is no microbe or pathogen that causes this.

That being said, and someone may have already posted this, one reason for declaring a condition to be a disease is that it changes how the insurance companies in the US handle payments. Stupid IMHO but whatever.

Heart disease and liver disease are not caused by a virus, bacteria, or parasite either.

Ever heard of Rhumatic Fever? It's caused by a Streptococcus pyogenes (which happens to be a gram positive bacteria), and some of the nice little side effects involve myocarditis which can manifest as congestive heart failure with shortness of breath, pericarditis with a rub, or a new heart murmur.

How about Diptheria?

Awesome, you dug up some rare diseases that many people never heard of or rarely get. Your point? I was responding to the post that inferred all diseases must be caused by some sort of pathogen, which is not true. Heart disease, Liver Disease, and Type 2 Diabetes are not commonly caused by any known bacteria, virus, or parasite but what is common to a large part of the population is that those diseases are related to Obesity.

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JDBLY11

one, obese people need help not condemnation.

LexiAtel

I consider this a personal issue and I don't feel it should have gotten as far as this. People need to be responsible for their own actions. I don't want to get political here, but it seems a lot of things have changed since 20 years ago.

Yeah, more people are probably overweight compared to then, but when you lose self control over yourself, that's not fair for someone else to have to pay for your lack of caring for your body.

Another thing this country doesn't do much is encourage to exercise. Sure, we want to say what people can and can't eat, but yeah, we don't want to go and do what what other countries do to make it easier for people to get our and MOVE, we'd rather try to control people and what they eat, where they eat it, how much, etc.

Extreme weight is a problem, but when someone is 40lbs over the "average" person of height, blah blah blah, I don't consider that a problem, but the majority of America does.

Stay out of my life please. I am a good person, I don't need you to find an excuse as to why I am not perfect.

jenniferfiedler

I also think it would be lovely if my health insurance covered a certain amount toward a gym membership.... but that's a pipe dream! :laugh:

Some do. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of ND does. Look into different companies and you should be able to find one that does.

krystle1001

At my last job with a local hospital, I had Health First insurance, and we got a 75% discount at the gym/health center that the hospital partnered with! I was soooo excited! It makes sense that the insurance companies could provide an incentive, like a gym membership discount, the average person's health will improve, and the over all cost of health issues, such as obesity, diabetes, and even depression would decrease as fitness and health increases.

astrampe

wow that is really messed up, I bet if you did the same poll here in Canada more people would want better obesity care, we have a different mentality especially when it comes to health care.

This is what I want to know I see the typical American attitude here, but I want to know what the rest of the world thinks.

Well, the first poster should not presume to speak for all Canadians....As most of our healthcare is "free" (or sharing my tax dollars) I do NOT think that people who refuse to take responsibility for their own health should be using up a giant share of what should be used for REAL diseases like cancer and other non-self inflicted issues.....

Shadowcub

A poll came out on Yahoo! Finance today:

How do you feel about the American Medical Association's decision to classify obesity as a disease?

The government and private sector should support the fight against obesity (8216) - 31%
Employers shouldn't be required to cover obesity treatments (5796) - 22%
Policy makers need to stay out of people's personal lives (12824) - 47%

I find it ironic that the highest percentage is a defensive response, and the lowest is the one that requires personal responsibility.

So, MFP world, what do you think? (I voted for the second one)

From what I understand, the point of the AMA announcement is that it is FAR cheaper in cases of clinical obesity (BMI > 30 or BMI>27 AND a co-morbidity such as diabetes, congestive heart failure, etc.) to treat the obesity and get a person's BMI down than it is to treat those co-morbidities for the rest of their life.

Interesting to note here that Medicare specifically EXCLUDES treatment for obesity on the same grounds as botox for wrinkles and viagra. For example, you can't get nutritional counselling, therapy specifically for emotional eating, etc.for being obese. No, you have to wait until you have the diabetes etc. first and THEN you can get the counseling directly related to THAT disease. The only semi-exception is for surgery and even then you need to have a co-morbidity to qualify. AND you have to have nutritional counselling first, but of course, they don't cover THAT. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is (or at least was) supposed to require PRIVATE insurers to cover obesity treatment as of next January, but not so Medicare/Medicaid. I'm still trying to figure that one out.

But enough commentary, I think the government SHOULD help people who want to do something about their weight. It's cheaper in the long run for everyone. So I would have voted #1.