- State obesity rates range from 24.2 percent in Colorado to 39.7 percent in Mississippi, and county obesity rates range from 15.7 percent in Boulder County, Colorado, to 50.1 percent in Holmes County, Mississippi.
- Obesity rates increased in all states from 2011 to 2020.
- Preventive screening and counseling services are covered by all types of insurance nationwide under the Affordable Care Act.
- Coverage for other obesity treatment options varies substantially across the country. Fifteen Medicaid programs cover antiobesity medications in fee-for-service Medicaid, and only four additional programs cover antiobesity medications under at least one Medicaid managed-care plan. Only two states cover antiobesity medications in benchmark Marketplace plans, and 16 state employee plans offer such coverage.
- Forty-eight states cover some form of bariatric surgery under Medicaid, as do 23 state benchmark plans and 42 state employee plans.
- Only 26 fee-for-service Medicaid programs and 28 managed-care Medicaid programs cover specific nutritional counseling to support modified diets. Nutritional counseling is covered in 37 state benchmark plans and in 13 state employee health plans.
- Pharmacotherapy is the least-covered treatment option across all types of insurance coverage.
Authors
Timothy A. Waidmann, Elaine Waxman, Vincent Pancini, Poonam Gupta, Loni Philip Tabb
- Published in
- United States of America
- Rights Holder
- Urban Institute