Doctors demand insurance coverage for obesity treatment

Doctors’ chambers in Vienna and Lower Austria, together with the Austrian Obesity Society, are calling for easier access to obesity treatment covered by social insurance, ORF reported. They say effective medicines are available, but an outdated regulation prevents the treatment from being routinely offered as an insurance benefit.

In an open letter to Health Minister Korinna Schumann, State Secretary Ulrike Königsberger-Ludwig and Austria’s social insurance institutions, the groups said qualified medical advice, treatment and long-term therapeutic support were not adequately included in the current social insurance benefits catalogue.

Obesity is a chronic disease for which effective medicines and evidence-based treatment guidelines are now available, they said. However, many patients in Austria still cannot access the treatment because reimbursement is insufficiently covered by social insurance.

The groups are calling for regular reimbursement of obesity treatment based on the guidelines of the Austrian Obesity Society. Medical consultations and longer-term therapeutic support should also be given greater consideration in the insurance system.

They also called for stronger prevention measures, including health education for children and teenagers and its inclusion in school curricula.

The Austrian Obesity Society recommends drug treatment for people with a body mass index of 30 or more, or from a BMI of 27 in cases involving accompanying illnesses or risk factors. Dagmar Fedra-Machacek, vice-president of the Lower Austrian medical chamber, said it was unacceptable for an outdated legal framework to determine who could access treatment that complied with current guidelines.

Naghme Kamaleyan-Schmied, vice-president of the Vienna medical chamber, said obesity was a widespread disease and one of the major health challenges of the future. She said it resulted from a combination of genetic, hormonal, psychological, social and environmental factors and required long-term treatment.

Bianca Karla Itariu, president of the Austrian Obesity Society, said new medicines acted on disrupted neural connections and regulatory mechanisms in the brain that control hunger, satiety and eating behaviour. The groups said medication could now achieve weight losses of 15% to 25% without surgery, while also reducing the risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and lowering mortality.