Based on this data, a number of prominent medical societies have issued consensus statements that morbidly obese patients should be offered the option of weight-loss surgery that is followed by appropriate lifelong medical care, including nutritional monitoring. This consensus is also supported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, many state Medicaid programs and even a number of commercial payers.
When it comes to controlling health costs, the obesity advocates make the case that weight-loss surgery for the severely obese produces significant cost savings, especially now that patients have access to less invasive surgical options offering cost-effective care with fewer major complications. This is also the conclusion of commercial payers which recognize that weight-loss surgery for the morbidly obese improves or resolves the serious medical conditions directly linked with excess body weight, including Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, and high cholesterol.
Along with Shape Up America!, three former U.S. Surgeons General and 17 prominent national public health, nutrition and obesity organizations and officials signed onto the ad and support its message: VADM C. Everett Koop, MD, ScD, 13th U.S. Surgeon General; VADM Joycelyn Elders, MD, 15th U.S. Surgeon General; VADM David Satcher, MD, 16th U.S. Surgeon General; American Dietetic Association; American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery/American Society for Bariatric Surgery; American Society for Nutrition; Institute for the Advancement of Multicultural & Minority Medicine; Obesity Action Coalition; Obesity Law & Advocacy Center; The Reality Coalition; Society for Women's Health Research; The Obesity Society; George Blackburn MD, PhD, Associate Director of Nutrition, Division of Nutrition at Harvard Medical School; Claude Bouchard, PhD, Executive Director, Pennington Biomedical Research Center; Eric J. DeMaria, MD, Chief of Duke EndoSurgery and Section Chief, Durham Regional Hospital, Duke University; Morgan Downey, Publisher & Editor of The Downey Obesity Report; David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACP, Director, Prevention Research Center, Yale University School of Medicine; Philip R. Schauer, MD, Director, Cleveland Clinic Bariatric and Metabolic Institute; Ninh T. Nguyen, MD, Chief of Gastrointestinal Surgery and Director of Bariatric Surgery, University of California Irvine Medical Center; and Judith S. Stern, ScD, Professor, University of California at Davis Department of Nutrition.
SOURCE Shape Up America!