COST-BENEFIT-ANALYSIS FOR THE TREATMENT OF SEVERE OBESITY

Cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs) are only now begin ning to be used by business, government, and policymakers to evaluate various medical treatments, The evolution of why CEAs are being demand ed is reviewed. To date, a formal CEA of obesity treatments has not be en published. This article outlines how a CEA is performed, reviews da ta relevant to setting up a formal CEA of medical and surgical obesity treatments, and lists published reports that demonstrate the effectiv eness of surgical obesity treatments. The general level of discriminat ion that society allows the obese to suffer also allows medical insura nce companies, businesses, and government to not provide many obese Am ericans with obesity treatments that have established a level of effec tiveness far surpassing many other Forms of medical therapy. CEAs of o besity treatments, by themselves, cannot be expected to reverse this d iscrimination. This type of data, however, provides individual obese p atients and their physicians viith evidence to challenge policymakers' decisions, especially when cost-effective obesity treatments are excl uded or placed at a lower priority than treatments with less proven ef fectiveness.