Fifteen years ago, former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop assembled a coalition of 20 organizations and public health officials called Shape Up America! to fight our nation’s obesity crisis. Now, the coalition has launched a crusade to provide affordable health care to the morbidly obese.
The coalition recently published an “Open Letter to Congress” through newspaper ads, urging that any upcoming health care legislation offer morbidly obese people access to counseling and treatment, including weight loss surgery.
The letter argues that the morbidly obese aren’t given sufficient health care because they aren’t taken seriously and are seen as suffering a lack of willpower when it comes to eating. But the coalition says that as many as 15 million Americans suffer from severe obesity and they all do suffer from a considerable health condition.
Also, it’s been estimated that obesity-related diseases cost our nation $147 billion each year. So, as Congress continues to debate health care reform, to save lives and save the economy, the coalition feels obese Americans need all the health care options they can get. Video plays below.
