Heidi’s POV

Speaker: Heidi  

Hi, my name is Heidi.  

Please describe how obesity has impacted your health and well-being. 

So, obesity has impacted my life. It is something I’ve struggled with my whole adult life on and off. I’ve tried all the diets that you can imagine. You know, you lose 20, 30, 40 pounds, you gain it back. My insurance doesn’t want to cover me getting a dietician, or nutritional information. I do believe that I could get, and I have gone to counseling on and off. You know, there’s a high out of pocket cost for these things. Like I said, even if you have insurance, it’s not totally covered. I have several health issues that are directly related to me being overweight and obese. Recently found out during a near death experience last year that I have like calcifications on my aorta, I suffer from chronic lower back pain, I think fatty liver disease, fatty liver disease, GERD, these are all things that are directly related to me being overweight. 

I would love for medication, counseling, nutrition, all these things should be covered by our insurance, it would make a huge difference in my life to be able to lose weight and keep it off. 

Describe your experience with obesity care, such as medications or counseling, for example. 

So, my experience regarding my obesity in the health care establishment has kind of been limited, you know, unless it’s something I brought up, nobody really speaks to me about it. So, I would love, and I think it’d be so important if it was just covered by our insurance and treated just like cancer or any other disease that somebody might have. And here are the resources for you. Here’s what you could do to help with losing weight, and the support system and the resources. So again, my experience with obesity care has kind of been limited regarding the medical establishment and my insurance. 

Tell us about any barriers you have faced in accessing obesity care, such as insurance coverage. 

Again, it’s been very limited, and I know that for me personally, I have a high deductible, and then after you meet that it’s a high co-insurance. So financially is a big one, even if you have insurance, for me personally, financially, it’s been a big barrier.  

Tell us why you think health insurance should cover obesity care. 

If they covered obesity care and gave us the resources that we needed, whether it was medication, counseling, nutrition, dietitians, a doctor that specialized in this, that helped us and gave us resources and opportunities that would best fit our unique situation regarding obesity, it would save the insurance companies so much money if they just covered obesity care in the beginning, you know. What a huge difference it would make to me personally and all the other millions of people that suffer from obesity and suffer in silence, because there is such a stigma that you are weak and that you are not strong, and you are looked down upon in society. It would just mean so much if insurance companies would cover obesity at the beginning and it would save them so much money on the end game of helping prevent diseases and chronic conditions.