Urge Your Legislators to Support the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act!

Background:

Despite increased scientific understanding of the disease of obesity, many policymakers and society as a whole continue to view obesity as a lifestyle choice or personal failing. These attitudes are rooted in bias – not science – and have failed us. There are evidence-based, FDA-approved treatments for people with obesity that mitigate the impacts of the disease and improve health outcomes. But our system remains fractured and coverage options for obesity treatments are only available for a lucky few who live in the right zip code or work for the right employer.

Take Action Now:

Use OAC’s advocacy tool below to send a letter to your Senators and Congressional Representative urging them to cosponsor TROA (or thank them if they already have – our system will customize the letter based on current cosponsors) and work toward the bill’s passage after over 10 years of waiting! It’s time to acknowledge obesity for the chronic disease that it is and take steps to expand access to treatment, in the same way treatments are covered for other chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. Health plans should offer behavioral, nutrition and mental health counseling for obesity as well as access to FDA approved anti-obesity medications and bariatric surgery when appropriate. It is important that plans offer all these services without significant barriers as comprehensive care is the key to success in addressing obesity.

It’s Easy to Advocate!

Use our easy automated message generator below to get started – it will identify your representatives and display template letters that can be customized before sending. Legislators also want to how these issues have impacted you, so we strongly encourage you to add your personal story to the letter template to help them better understand the need for greater access to critical obesity treatment tools.